Facebook announces Horizon Workrooms, a virtual meeting space with avatars, spatial audio, a whiteboard, and more, in beta on Oculus Quest 2

It wasn't long into a recent press briefing I attended in virtual reality when Mark Zuckerberg showed up to talk about the metaverse. Source: Oculus .

The Verge 2021-08-19 Alex Heath

Context & Ripple Effects

Workrooms turns Facebook’s earlier Infinite Office concept for Quest 2 into a meeting product, adding shared presence and collaboration tools rather than positioning VR only as an individual workspace. It also extends the company’s migration from its earlier Spaces service into the Horizon line after Facebook consolidated its prior social VR platforms around Horizon.

The beta makes Quest 2 the immediate access point for Facebook’s work-oriented VR push. Related coverage later places Workrooms alongside Work Accounts and Quest for Business, indicating that collaboration, social spaces and device administration were being assembled around the same headset platform.

First-order effects

Quest 2 owners gain a beta meeting environment with avatars, spatial audio and a whiteboard, while Facebook gains a live test bed for work use of its headset.
Facebook’s Horizon brand expands from a multiplayer-world strategy into workplace collaboration, giving its VR portfolio a clearer business use case.

Second-order effects

Workrooms raises the value of Facebook’s Quest-specific work features: remote teams evaluating the beta must use the company’s headset rather than a platform-neutral meeting service.
The product creates a direct bridge between Facebook’s virtual-office software and its subsequent Work Accounts and Quest for Business efforts, tying collaboration adoption to managed-device capabilities.

Third-order effects

If Facebook continues combining social presence, productivity tools and business accounts under Horizon, VR collaboration may consolidate around headset ecosystems rather than standalone meeting apps.
The pattern shifts Facebook’s VR strategy from separate social experiments toward a unified platform whose consumer and workplace uses share identity, hardware and developer infrastructure.

The trend: Facebook is repositioning Quest from a consumer VR device into a common platform for social interaction, remote work and managed business use.

Discussion

Vox Shirin Ghaffary on x
Never going back to the office? Facebook has an app for that.
@brianstelter Brian Stelter on x
Here's what Mark Zuckerberg is announcing in his interview on CBS: “A virtual reality app that lets you and your coworkers feel like you're sitting around a table in a conference room.” https://www.cnn.com/...
@facebook @facebook on x
Introducing Horizon Workrooms on @Oculus Quest 2: your new virtual meeting room to sketch ✍️, brainstorm💡 and collaborate with your team 🤝 — no matter where you are. We think it's one of the best ways to work if you can't be physically in the same room. https://twitter.com/...
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
Skeuomorphism. https://www.oculus.com/...
@markdistef Mark Di Stefano on x
Can't wait for my relatives' cartoon avatars to post some insane rants about vaccines in the metaverse. https://twitter.com/...
@kellymakena Makena Kelly on x
i love how fb and all these tech companies are like Hyperealist Metaverse Is the Future while my for you page and insta is filled w memes like this from young people who are tired of the internet https://twitter.com/...
@jeffnolan Jeff Nolan on x
sounds like a fucking nightmare https://twitter.com/...
@carlquintanilla Carl Quintanilla on x
ZUCKERBERG: “.. you can kind of think about it as, instead of being an internet that we look at, right, on our mobile phones or our computer screens, it's an internet that we are a part of, or that we can be inside of.” $FB https://twitter.com/...
@mims Christopher Mims on x
I've used this kind of tech, it can generate a genuines sense of presence not available on Zoom, everyone who's dunking on this should at least give it a try (it may have its applications) https://twitter.com/...
@learmonth Michael Learmonth on x
Wait, so Facebook took a year to remove the worst anti-vax superspreaders, but wants to sell us second life for zoom meetings? https://twitter.com/...
@jjvincent James Vincent on x
reject modernity; embrace tradition https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@pilhofer Aron Pilhofer on x
It's almost too easy to snark about this, so I'll let a million others do it. I'll only add this: The Quest 2 headset weighs a bit over 1 pound. It takes 2.5 hours to charge, and lasts about 2.5 hours. https://www.cnn.com/...
@kairyssdal Kai Ryssdal on x
Hard pass https://twitter.com/...
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
This will obviously catch on. The only question is when. https://twitter.com/...
@bzamayo Benjamin Mayo on x
damn the metaverse is boring https://twitter.com/...
@jyarow Jay Yarow on x
No thanks. https://twitter.com/...
@davewiner Dave Winer on x
Zuck's vision of the future. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@dmitryopines Dmitry Grozoubinski on x
By the way, VR Remote work is a terrible idea. The Oculus is nice and I absolutely recommend one for gaming, but wearing one for more than an hour is painful, exhausting and dizzying. I'm also just very unclear on what problem this VR App is supposed to be solving.
@oliviasolon Olivia Solon on x
Call me a luddite but unless you are an architect/engineer/designer I don't see how meeting in VR adds anything to the Zoom experience beyond sweaty eyeballs https://twitter.com/...
@martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x
Facebook announces a VR workplace collaboration app called Horizon Workrooms. “Participants join with a customizable cartoon avatar of themselves. Interactive virtual white boards line the walls so that people can write and draw things.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@jamesliamcook James Cook on x
My repeated pitches to host newspaper editorial meetings inside Second Life during lockdown never took off but maybe this will https://twitter.com/...
@samro @samro on x
Mark Zuckerberg's vision for meetings https://www.axios.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@yoda Drew Olanoff on x
so let me get this straight: the company that has helped millions of people “awaken through Q” and destroyed families and governments would like you to hold all of your most important and expensive conversations inside of its “Metaverse” Ok
@yoda Drew Olanoff on x
Also Facebook reallllly showed slack who's boss with their work product didn't they
@yoda Drew Olanoff on x
lol https://twitter.com/...
@shiraovide Shira Ovide on x
Ok, Mark Zuckerberg was right before about the ways that people want to connect online. But what makes him believe fervently that people want “technology that gives you this sense of presence.” And are we sure it's a good idea? https://www.nytimes.com/...
@adrianweckler Adrian Weckler on x
Facebook's big new product launch today is a VR work-from-home thing ('Horizon Workrooms'). In other words, strap on a VR headset (Oculus Quest 2) and ‘see’ your colleagues around a table. https://www.oculus.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@jetscott Scott Stein on x
Zuckerberg sees it at the first piece of a larger metaverse platform the company's building. And a road to where digital and physical things intertwine more: “One way or another, we're going to live in a mixed reality future.” tip @Techmeme
@jetscott Scott Stein on x
Video and impressions of the app in the story. There are lots of virtual work apps, but Horizon Workrooms connects to a Mac/Windows computer and can cast your screen in and keyboard, and maps to physical desk space. It's sort of semi-mixed reality?
@bowknowsbiz Bowdeya Tweh on x
Facebook's big announcement on CBS published early (feels like “Early Edition.” The news: It's connected to the metaverse and a use case for Quest in virtual offices. https://twitter.com/...
@jetscott Scott Stein on x
The beta app launches today, and Facebook's been using it internally for months. Mark Zuckerberg dropped into my meeting to answer some questions. We were all cartoon avatars. But I used my real keyboard and laptop. https://www.cnet.com/...
@jetscott Scott Stein on x
This is me, on the left. I'm meeting with Facebook in their new VR work app, Horizon Workrooms. https://twitter.com/...

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