And finally, as the digital and physical world come together, we create a completely new platform, Metaverse. We’re bringing people, places, and things together with the digital world in both the consumer space as well as in the enterprise. In this article, we’ll be discussing the Metaverse platform of Facebook and Microsoft.
Also if you don’t have any idea about how the Metaverse is actually is, then don’t worry. We have a full detailed article on this too. I would recommend you to check that out first.
Read – What is Metaverse?
Microsoft Metaverse :
Metaverse. You have probably started to hear this word thrown around recently. Here let’s try to understand the Metaverse from Microsoft’s Point of view. What is a Metaverse? Does it already exist? Are you already in it? Let’s dig in
Simply put, a Metaverse is a digital space inhabited by digital representations of people and things. Think of it as a new version or a new online concept. Many people talk about the Internet as a place. Now we can actually go into that place to communicate, share, and work with others. It’s an Internet that you can actually interact with as we do in the physical world. And that’s not just a vision anymore. Right now you go to a concert and experience a show with other real people inside a video game. You can walk the factory floor from your own home. You can join a meeting remotely, but be in the room to collaborate with your co-workers. Those are Metaverses. The future is already here.
Microsoft works to help you become more independent in the digital environment, while ensuring that you can bring your personality and agency to the forefront. If the past few years have taught us anything, is that we need that flexibility. The world has never been more connected, but more recently, we have needed to distance ourselves physically. The more we can show our physical in a digital environment, the more we can break down these barriers.
Teammates can join meetings from anywhere. Real-time translation allows people from different cultures to collaborate in real-time. This is what makes this move from a cool mind to a sensitive one. The Metaverse has the ability to stretch us beyond the barriers and limitations of the physical world.
Features like grid views together mode and presenter mode in teams mark the beginning of bringing 2D immersive experiences to collaboration. But human presence is the ultimate connection. When you and I can have a meeting where we are all present together without actually being physically present that’s the next big breakthrough and we are approaching this thoughtfully because we have learned from similar transitions in the past. Microsoft Teams Mesh will allow you to connect with your presence and have shared immersion information directly in groups.
Meta (Formerly Facebook) Metaverse :
Mark Zuckerberg – Imagine you put on your glasses or headset in your instantly in your home space. It has parts of your physical home recreated virtually and it has things that are only possible virtually, and it has an incredibly inspiring view of whatever you find most beautiful.
Across the Microsoft Cloud from Azure IoT to Azure Digital twins to connected spaces and Microsoft Mesh, they are building the Metaverse intrensics the Metaverse platform for you to build upon. In a sense, Metaverse enables us to embed a computer in the real world and embed the real world on a computer, which brings real presence to any digital environment.
For years we have been talking about creating this digital representation of the world, but now we actually have the opportunity to enter that world and participate in it. Most importantly we are able to bring our personality with us and choose how we want to feel this world, and who we want to work with. It’s is no longer just looking at a camera view of a factory floor, you can be on the floor. It’s no longer just video conferencing with colleagues you can be with them in the same room. It’s no longer just a game with friends, you can be in the game with them.
Mark Zuckerberg – The feeling of presence. This is the descriptive quality of Metaverse. You’re going to really feel like you’re there with other people. You’ll see their facial expressions, super body language, maybe figure out if they are actually holding a winning hand. All the subtle ways that we communicate that today’s technology can’t quite deliver.
Next, there are Avatars, and that’s how we’re going to represent ourselves in the Metaverse. Avatars will be as common as profile pictures today but instead of a static image, they’re going to be living 3D representations of you. Your expressions, gestures that are going to make interactions much richer, anything that’s possible online today. You’ll probably have a photo-realistic Avatar for work, a stylized one for hanging out, and maybe the fantasy one for gaming. You are going to have a wardrobe of virtual clothes for different occasions, designed by different creators and from different apps and experiences. Importantly, you should be able to bring your Avatar in digital items across different apps and experiences in the Metaverse.
And these are some of the basic concepts for the Metaverse and you know while this may sound like science fiction. We’re starting to see a lot of these technologies coming together. In the next 5 or 10 years, a lot of this is going to be mainstream and a lot of us will be creating inhabiting worlds that are just as detailed and convincing, like this one on a daily basis. So even though it’s still a long way off, Facebook starting to work on some of these foundational concepts today.
Horizon is the social platform that Facebook is building for people to create and interact in the Metaverse. One part of this is Horizon Home, which is facebook’s early vision for a home space in the Metaverse. Horizon Home is the first thing that you will see when you put on your quest headset. Today there are already a bunch of options to choose from and in the future, anyone will be able to create one. They’ve just called it Home until now because it’s been missing something very important, and that is people. Soon we’re going to be introducing a social version of Home where you can invite your friends to join you as Avatars. You will be able to hang out, watch videos together and jump into apps together.
Then there is Horizon Worlds which is where you can build worlds and jump into them. Horizon is designed to make it possible for everyone to create. We’re already seeing people build some really interesting experiences, from creating new games together to throwing surprise parties and VR that family and friends around the world can join. Facebook has started rolling out Horizon World Beta last year and they are adding more people and more worlds every day.
And they have also just launched Horizon Workrooms earlier year for collaboration. Beyond Horizon, they are also making it easier to communicate with your friends across different layers of reality. This year, they’re about to bring Messenger calls to virtual reality. You will be able to invite your friends to messenger calls, and soon you’ll be able to explore somewhere together or join a game. Now, these are the kinds of tools that need to get built so you can jump into the Metaverse with your friends from anywhere. And they’re going to unlock some pretty amazing experiences.