Meta to enable social interactions in Horizon Worlds via Quest 2: Zuckerberg

Meta, the holding company behind Facebook, announced on Friday, June 10 that it is adding the ability for users to socialize in its metaverse, dubbed Horizon Worlds, through an update to its virtual reality headset, the Oculus Quest 2. This update will seemingly allow users to interact with each other, thereby getting a closer feel of the ‘metaverse’ experience that Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg — and almost everyone else in the technology industry, have been talking about.

Horizon Worlds is Facebook’s vision of what its intended metaverse would eventually be. In December last year, the company started opening the metaverse for public access. However, the virtual world today does not offer the full community experience that Zuckerberg has spoken about for the metaverse.

Once rolled out fully, Horizon Worlds will feature fully customizable virtual avatars, which users can don and enter a virtual space to interact with each other. Announcing via a video on Facebook this Friday, Zuckerberg said that users of the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset will be able to socialize in a virtual space using their avatars.

He further added that the company is working on adding the ability for users to create their own virtual spaces, and host private gatherings with their peers.

As Meta builds its metaverse, the company has also recently responded to reports of harassment by adding a ‘personal boundary’ on its platform. The feature is designed to help establish a safe distance between individuals in the metaverse, after users reported about harassment in the virtual world.

With Quest 2 set to create a virtual socialization experience for Horizon Worlds, it remains to be seen how such rules play out in the metaverse. Eventually, the concept will see virtual commerce being baked into the social experience as well — something that is being built by various companies around the world right now.