Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has announced that it is rolling out a standalone Zoom app in collaboration with the video conferencing platform. The new app will allow users to attend video conferences as their virtual avatars. The app is currently available for free for Meta Quest Virtual Reality (VR) headsets owners, and it will work with any free or paid Zoom license. Meta, in a blog post, said that the new app is an extension of the Zoom Workplace app that users have been using on their smartphones and computers. The move aligns with the video conferencing platform’s recent push for more AI generated avatars in meetings.
The New Standalone App
In a blog post, Meta announced that a new Zoom standalone app for the Meta Quest VR headsets is now available for users. The company claims that the app is a “seamless” extension of Zoom’s Workplace app that users have been using on their handsets and desktops. Zoom’s new app will let users join video conferences as their virtually rendered avatars, either in Immersion or Passthrough modes.
The Immersion mode, Meta said, will allow people to “focus on the conversation” by creating a virtual environment around their avatar. On the other hand, the Passthrough mode will present the same in an augmented reality (AR) environment with the real surroundings present in the frame. Other users present in the meeting will see the same avatar, regardless of the device they have joined the meeting from.
According to Meta’s website, the Zoom Meetings app on Meta Quest devices will work with any free or paid Zoom license. Additionally, the app can function on the Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 2 VR headsets. As per the image shared by Meta, the new app will feature a similar user interface (UI) as the desktop app. However, the navigation bar with Home, Team Chat, Meetings, and Contacts pages appears on the left instead of at the top.
Zoom’s AI and VR Push
The announcement comes at a time when the video conferencing platform has been pushing to expand its presence in the AR and VR space, along with investing in improving its AI capabilities. According to a report by The Verge, Eric Yuan, Zoom’s CEO, told the publication in an interview that he wants AI-generated digital twins of users to attend the meetings.
On March 17, Zoom announced that it is upgrading its AI Companion with several new features. One such feature was custom avatars for Zoom Clips. The company said that this would help users scale video clip creation by letting the AI agent handle the process.
Zoom, in January 2024, announced that it is unveiling a new app for the Apple Vision Pro AR/VR headset. However, while the Apple’s Mixed Reality (MR) headset presents users as a digitally rendered self, which is more life-like, Meta’s approach has been different as it displays an animated avatar of the users.
