Facebook is reimaging remote collaboration with Horizon Workrooms

If you own an Oculus Quest 2, now you can meet your colleagues in avatar form with Horizon Workrooms.

Facebook has launched a new virtual-reality remote workspace for those who own an Oculus Quest 2, where you can talk to people at work as avatars in a virtual office.

This is a new way to allow people to work together during the Covid-19 pandemic since a lot of physical workspaces have shut down or taken on hybrid working.

Workrooms work across virtual reality and through the web and bring together new technology together for the first time on the Quest 2, such as a mixed-reality desk and keyboard tracking, as well as hand tracking and remote desktop streaming.

With Workspaces, you can sign into a call in VR as an avatar of yourself, or stick to a standard video call if you want to be more traditional.

Facebook is very invested in virtual reality, developing the Oculus VR headsets as well as working on AR glasses and some wearable wristband technology.

Facebook itself is now apparently using Workrooms regularly for internal meetings and showed how the platform worked in its first full VR news briefing.

The Workspaces app is free, although to use it you will need to invest in an Oculus Quest 2 headset, which aren’t the cheapest devices on the market.

In the app, up to 16 people can come together in VR and you can have 50 people in total when including just video conference participants. People without the Quest 2 headset can also join the call, though only in video conference form.

Facebook is also claiming that conversations over Workspaces will not be used in targeted ads on its social media platform and that anyone using the platform must follow its VR community standards.