On stage at Facebook’s F8 conference this morning, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the company will today launch their first social VR application.
Back in October, Facebook Social VR Product Manager Mike Booth said that the company intended to launch their social VR application “as soon as possible” and it seems he wasn’t joking.
On stage at F8 today, the company announced the launch of Facebook Spaces in beta for Oculus Rift and Touch. The app is available now on the Oculus store.
Facebook has given a glimpse at their work on their social VR application over the last year. When the company first introduced the application, they showed things like avatar customization and virtual selfie uploading. More recently the company showed further development which completely overhauled their approach to avatars in social VR, and showed an impressive ability to make video calls from within VR to the outside world.
Now the company has launched their latest build of the social VR app in beta for the Oculus Rift.
This new VR app takes some of the best features of Facebook and brings them into your VR space. Spend time with friends and family like you’re really there, step inside 360 videos, draw and play with Touch, and more. The beta launches today for Rift—don’t miss it on the Oculus Store.
The app also launches with the Messenger video chat option, to make video calls to people between Facebook Spaces in VR and the real world.
Facebook says that when it comes to building your avatar, the company is using computer vision to suggest customization potions based on your Facebook profile picture.