Demystifying VR: Virtual Worlds, Real Friends

If you are a true gaming fan, it is likely that you’ll try out at least one VR game this year, and if you like it, you’ll try every opportunity to explore new apps whenever you have a VR device handy. If you are an artist, you might get enamored by an app like Tilt Brush. There might also be some other specific VR applications that will catch the attention of niche groups for longer periods of time. You can even use VR to view sports! However, none of these apps or user cases have strong enough lock-in aspects to make people live in VR (unless they release World of Warcraft VR). And if we look at what happened in the past, it was the social networks that built the foundation for people to go and stay online, all by incorporating their specific interests in different ways.

It is widely agreed that the quest for social VR is largely influencing the entire process of developing the VR sphere, and a bunch of companies in the industry are trying to create the killer social app.

Acting social while being virtual

When we talk about social VR, we talk about moving around in virtual space where they meet and interact with others. Some critics are arguing against the continued development of online and VR social platforms, as people should communicate and make connections in real life. They do have a point since abuse of social media is a thing that happens a lot. However, we should look at VR as a tool that will improve our real life social connections. According to researchers, social VR can be adapted for more emotional interactivity. For example, the avatar could be programmed to look directly into the eyes of every participant of conversation simultaneously, strengthening the speaker’s presence in the discussion, and algorithms could be developed that would censor certain gestures, ensuring that no cultural boundaries are crossed.

A Viscous Circle Of User Hunting

For social VR to work, it is essential to have network of constant users, so that skeptical new users wouldn’t leave because of the impression that no one is around. In this case, a high rate of device adoption is required. But to actually invest in device, the consumer needs to have reason to use VR. That’s were strong content comes in: simply joining a VR social network will hardly influence anyone to buy a headset - for that to happen, something important and fun must be happening on the network. And for that you need people!

This is a bit of an egg-chicken problem of social VR. This closed loop of have-users-to-get-users-to-have-users is likely to only be broken by some specific group of people, just like the time when Facebook started out in university campuses. Many of the best VR practices come from gaming, but even if game communities can get pretty big, they still remain relatively insular. Best AR example so far (and by far) is Pokemon Go, as it conquered the market in a matter of few days. However, with the effects of novelty and achievement (leveling up, collecting Pokemon) wearing off, it is feared that it might become a strictly gamer app.

The social VR race will be won by whoever finds a way to grab the attention of a more universal group of users, and to integrate their product with other apps. As the ex-Google and Youtube exec Ben Smith wrote, “ social content today helps reveal to ourselves who we might be deep down inside ”; once we will be able to express all of our interests in VR, we will all be moving there.

Alternatively, we could see the market develop in a different direction (even if the device adoption problem remains). In this case, current social networks like Facebook can ensure a smooth transition by offering their already sizeable customer bases some attractive VR features. The VR selfie trick was already demoed back in April, 2016 (using Oculus Social), but we need something more to sustain long-term interest.

How To Make Friends Virtually, Today

Middle VR has introduced Improov3 co-working platform, which joins colleagues separated by geographical location and allows the share a virtual space to work on 3D models imported from AutoCad. This is bound to peak the interest of architects and product designers (should be pretty useful for VR app creators as well) as collaborative work can happen real time, without interruptions to download and analyze models individually. While this is a use VR that is approachable to a broader audience, the app itself in unlikely to have major impact.

On the topic of broader functionality platforms, we can distinguish a few players like vTime, AltspaceVR and Oculus Social.

AltspaceVR is developing a social platform that enables users to visit their friends and send messages (friend requests work like on Facebook). The company also offers features like organizing events or joining VR comedy shows. It seems that AltspaceVR is going the way of virtualizing many of everyday activities, which goes in-line with the first of the market development scenarios outlined before.

Similarly to AltspaceVR, vTime is a cross-platform application that can be accessed using all of the main VR devices including Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. This social network allows users to interact with friends in both pre-made virtual environments and inside their uploaded photos.

As the name suggests, Oculus Social is hosted by Oculus, and it works on Gear VR and Oculus only, which is a bit of a limitation. However, if it can be successful there, it should not take long to integrate with other devices. This is where the power of being a market leader in social networking (reminder: Oculus is owned by Facebook) helps immensely – the audience is there, you only need an appealing app to hook them up.

All of these are platforms have great features, but the number of users is still low, which brings us back to the issue of being in the very early stage of device adoption. There is definitely some activity in the field, and the there’s constant appeal to find the “killer app” for the broader audience, so social VR will take of sooner or later. As there are proven market innovators involved, the bet is on “sooner” side.