Facebook gonna make virtual reality social

The time for games is over -- virtual reality is getting social.

The platform, once dominated by immersive games, is about to get taken over by social networks, with Facebook leading the charge.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off live VR chat using the Oculus Rift on Thursday, with his own Justin Timberlake look-a-like avatar.

On stage at the Oculus Connect 3 conference, Zuckerberg demonstrated the Oculus Touch controller's emotion options, which make avatars show facial expressions, letting you look surprised, happy or confused in VR.

"Eventually, the goal is to achieve most of what you saw today through gestural tracking and voice analysis," a spokeswoman for Facebook said.

The demo showed several features, including changing backgrounds to live locations like inside Facebook's offices or at Zuckerberg's home, where he was able to check on his dog, Beast.

While at his home in VR, his wife Priscilla Chan called in through Facebook Messenger, leading to a selfie -- with a virtual selfie stick -- of Zuckerberg, his wife in a chat box and their dog.

"We should build software and experiences that follow the way our minds work and process the world," Zuckerberg said. "Virtual reality is the perfect platform to put people first because of presence."

The experience includes being able to play games like cards, Chess and fencing, as well as pulling up videos in real time and watching with your friends on virtual reality

Zuckerberg showed off a few of the creative possibilities that come with the new Oculus platform, like being able to draw and play with your creations in the social experience.

Social VR—With Actual Friends

Virtual reality has made huge strides over the past five years, but for something that so invites interaction with other people, it’s still a starkly individual experience. If you want to experience VR with a friend, you can invite them over to use your headset, or you can…well, that’s really it. (Mobile headsets are more portable, but they also notably lack crucial ingredients of “presence,” the sensation of physically being inside a virtual space.) Even then, you’re stuck watching them have fun, or they you; you can’t both be in VR at the same time, unless you have multiple computer/headset setups. The only way to be in VR with other people is via a multiplayer experience either you convince your one friend who has a headset to log in at the same time, or you hang out in VR with strangers.

This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.

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