Facebook's New <br />Remote Work VR App, Is Step Towards 'Metaverse'.<br />Facebook's Horizon Workroom's app <br />is currently in the beta stage.<br />It makes use of the company's <br />Oculus Quest 2 VR headsets.<br />The app allows avatar versions of users to meet in VR work spaces, such as conference rooms.<br />Up to 16 people can meet virtually, and up to <br />50 can join in via video conference.<br />Facebook was explicit that conversations occurring in Workroom would not be mined for ad targeting.<br />Facebook premieres the app as many companies have delayed employees returning to physical offices.<br />COVID-19 surges due to waning vaccinations <br />and the onset of the Delta variant ... .<br />... have led to subdued reopenings and new <br />lockdown measures all over the world.<br />The app is also in line with Facebook founder <br />Mark Zuckerberg's notion of a 'metaverse,' ...<br />... in which the internet <br />becomes more "embodied.".<br />The term comes from a dystopian novel <br />published in the early 1990s, when the internet <br />was just becoming ubiquitous.<br />'Metaverse' refers to a merging of <br />digital and physical spaces.<br />This [Workroom app] is kind of one of those foundational steps in that direction, Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, Facebook VP <br />Reality Labs, Reuters.<br />Zuckerberg announced in July that <br />a Facebook product team is devoted exclusively <br />to working towards a metaverse
