Through the Facebook Spaces virtual hangout, you can broadcast live in VR
NEW YORK—Facebook Live is going virtual.
It’s all part of a new feature that starts rolling out today inside Facebook Spaces, a virtual reality gathering place where you and up to three of your distant friends can hang out. Spaces launched as beta in this past Spring, and required you, and your virtually-inclined Facebook pals, to have Oculus Rift VR headgear, Rift wireless Touch hand controllers, and the robust PC to make it all work.
But it has also always been Facebook’s intention to bridge the real and virtual worlds. Such efforts inside Spaces started with a cool integration with Facebook Messenger. You could make a make a video call to the real world from virtual reality (or vice versa) to friends who are in Messenger but who don’ t have a Rift. The limiting factor, however, was that such a Messenger call was a one-to-one connection.
This latest Facebook Live feature inside Spaces opens a window into your virtual space to all your Facebook friends, and, if you’ re so inclined, to the broader public.
“What we found so far with VR is that people are the killer app, ” says Mike Booth the head of product management at Facebook Spaces. “This is a way for people who don’ t even know what VR is to see it come up as a live feed in their news feed.”
Such viewers can comment on your Facebook Live virtual livestream just as they can weigh in on any other Facebook Live broadcast. You as the person conducting the livestream can view those comments and reactions (hearts, smiley faces) . Inside the Spaces environment the broadcaster will see a tablet or mirror that shows what is being streamed out to everyone on Facebook.
The Live VR feature is the latest effort by social networking giant to broaden the appeal of the Rift itself, which hasn’ t sold well. Just this week Oculus announced that under a six-week summer promotion, the price of Rift and Touch drops to $200 to $398, the second major price cut for the Rift and Touch in four months.
“The main reason that we’ re having this (Live feature) is to explore breaking the barrier between VR and non-VR and to connect you with more of your friends, ” says Booth.
Early efforts in the VR space have mainly been focused on the hardcore gaming crowd. But Booth says that one of the reasons that “Live is interesting is that we need people to see that there are many other things you can do and that connecting with people is a really powerful way to use VR.”
The Spaces feature itself is still in beta.
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter
