Virtual Reality Worlds for Business

2022. Meta partners with Microsoft to bring VR to Teams



Meta has announced a partnership with Microsoft to bring Windows apps and Teams tie-ins, to Meta’s metaverse hardware efforts. This means that Microsoft Teams will integrate with Quest devices and that Microsoft will provide a way to stream Windows apps to Meta’s headsets. Custom 3D avatars will eventually come to the experience. Horizon Workrooms, Meta’s VR space for collaboration, will connect with Teams, allowing people to join a Teams meeting directly from Workrooms. Microsoft 365 will come to Quest in a way that lets users interact with content from productivity apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. These aren’t full-blown versions of apps designed for VR, importantly; They’re Progressive Web Apps, rather.


2021. Microsoft Teams gets 3D animated avatars



Microsoft announced 3D avatars for those Teams meetings where you don’t want to be on camera. Those animated personalized avatars are part of what Microsoft calls “Mesh for Teams,” which combines the company’s Mesh platform for powering shared experiences in virtual reality, augmented reality and elsewhere, with Teams and its built-in productivity tools. It’s still the same meetings that should’ve been an email, but different. To access Mesh for Teams, you will be able use anything from a smartphone to a VR headset or a HoloLens. Microsoft says businesses can also create their own spaces — or metaverses, because that’s the term we use now — within Teams, where people can virtually mingle and collaborate.

2020. HTC offers businesses virtual reality meetings


Hundreds of millions of people are taking online meetings from home due to the coronavirus lockdowns. And now they can do it in virtual reality. HTC announced its Vive Sync platform for business meetings in virtual reality is now in open for free (till the end of 2020). The experience of using Vive Sync should be familiar to anyone who has used VR apps before. First, you create your Vive Sync avatar, starting with a selfie and then customizing it further. The virtual meetings on Vive Sync are integrated with business tools such as OneDrive, meaning you can publish stuff like PDFs, videos, and 3D models in your virtual meeting space. Vive Sync currently supports up to 30 meeting participants per session. Of course, those participants will all have to wear Vive headsets, which range from $549 to more than $1,000, so ... you know what to do, bosses.


2013. Virtual 3D-worlds for business come back: Timvi


About 7 years ago the idea to bring virtual 3D worlds to business meetings emerged on the IT market. Some start-ups appeared and even Second Life opened the enterprise version of its virtual world. But then global economic crisis began and companies had no time to test the new toys. The 3D worlds for business were sent to the deadpool. Maybe their second coming will be more successful. Russian company Avrorus recently introduced their new platform Timvi - the virtual business center, where any company can build own 3D office or conference room of any size and use it for meetings with partners, customers or staff training. 3D office - is just an environment for online meetings. During the meeting, you can use the usual tools: video, voice, chat, screen sharing, online presentations. Why do you need this environment? ***


2010. Sococo Team Space - virtual office in four walls



How does a ordinary virtual office for the geographically-distributed teams look like? Probably something like Basecamp or Google Apps: user list with online status indication, chat, a page for shared files, calendar, tasks, forum. Looks minimalistic and efficient. But the lack of such online office is that the project participants don't have a team-feelings that comes when working in the same real office. Of course, there are already virtual worlds for business like Second Life, where you can create a realistic 3D-office and 3D-avatars. But for a small startup using such a 3D-world as an online office - is overkill. Sococo Team Space is something average between virtual reality and traditional online office. ***