Horizon Workrooms: new feature improves brainstormings
The latest update brings Meta's Metaverse office another step closer to the real thing.
The fourth Workrooms update allows you and your team to write on virtual Post-it notes and place them on whiteboards. As before, you can turn the controller over in your hands and use the handle to take notes. They are available in four colors and an unlimited number.
The whiteboards and notes are automatically saved by Workrooms. To recall the notes, you can jump back into the room at any time or simply export the whiteboard and slips of paper in 2D format and view them on a conventional screen. This eliminates the need to reach for your VR headset.
Horizon Workrooms: new features...
Workrooms launched into open beta in August 2021 and is Meta's first draft of a Metaverse office where teams can defy physical distance and meet virtually. Virtual reality is used to create the impression of meeting in the same space. Metamates use the software for some internal meetings, according to several Meta managers.
Since its launch, Meta has been constantly improving the software. Among other things, support for M1 chips, a lectern for presentations, customization options for offices and new city, country and beach environments have been added.
Meta's design is based on the real office environment. Horizon Workrooms simulates the familiar and enhances it here and there with virtual reality features, rather than reinventing the wheel. That makes sense. Most people probably need to get used to a virtual equivalent of the real world before they're ready to set off for entirely new shores.
...and old problems
Meta desperately needs to improve accessibility, as I discovered when trying it out a few weeks ago. Initial setup is cumbersome, the account system is confusing, the 2D user interfaces take some getting used to, and streaming from PC or Mac is prone to glitches.
It's exhausting enough to put on VR headsets for work. Add to that technical issues on two levels of reality (cyberspace and meatspace), and you quickly run out of steam. I hope that at least the account system will be unified with the upcoming meta-logins.
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