Facebook Spaces

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Introduction

Facebook Spaces is Facebook’s attempt to make use of the growing and expansive trend of VR, while making it family-friendly, welcoming, and a social area for anyone to join in on as they please. There’s a lot to see and do in this new venture from the social media giant and providing you continue to read on, you’ll learn about everything Facebook Spaces has to offer.

Features

Currently, one of the biggest features the developers have made a big deal about is the ability to take pictures of yourself and proceed to build your online, VR avatar inside Facebook Spaces. They’ve also stated that you will be able to make tweaks to your avatar as and when you see fit, but you will be able to get a strong resemblance between your avatar and a picture of yourself from the very get-go, providing the developers follow up on that one particular thing.

Another one of the more prominent features that come to mind is the ability to contact your friends whilst you’re online and currently in VR, but they don’t have to be at the time. You can see them whilst they’re in the real world and they will be able to see you and your avatar while you are currently in VR. They can joke around and be silly and they’ll be able watch and witness every emotion that you’ll be conveying when you’re in VR; be it through laughter, smiling or through the need to flail your arms around like a clown. What’s nice about this new feature is that you can talk with your friends, without the need to be on camera, but you can still show a bit of personality between the two. After all, not everyone likes to be on camera now, do they?

Quite easily the most creative feature of the lot; there’s an opportunity to take out a painting tool and go from there. Regardless of your knowledge of VR, you can pick up either controller and make a start on some drawings, but since they are in a 3D space, you can very easily make a 3D model without much trouble. Being able to tilt, rotate, and transform the design within your very grasp is what makes this cool little feature so neat. Obviously, this isn’t designed to be the VR version of Photoshop, but it’s enough for anyone of any age to make something silly and show it off to some of their friends.

Whilst you’re in VR, feel free to meet up with some friends in an open “space” and enjoy some time together, as much as you like. You can chat, meet up, and even take some funky selfies with your friends as you see fit. Both of your avatars looking like they’re having a good time, then be sure to take a good couple of shots to place onto your Facebook wall to show all of your friends and family that you’ve got on there.

Even when you’re with your friends, you can explore around this cool, open spaces in a complete 360° setting. During this, one of you might even manage to notice something the other hadn’t, so you can always point it out for them, just to make sure that they get a good eyeful. Since you’ll both be in VR, wherever you end up pointing, they’ll be able to follow exactly where you meant with ease!

Go live! What I mean by this is that you can go live at any point in VR and stream it online for anyone you so desire to see it. For instance, maybe there’s something you’re looking to showcase to an audience or simply just a friend; from there you can do exactly that without having to put any pants on – although I’d probably recommend it all the same. An even better example of this is by using the live feature to produce a live tutorial or even teach a class, as you can use the drawing features to produce some extras for a visual treat to whoever’s watching. Either that or you can make your best mate laugh as you start to draw the poor bloke in a frilly dress and a sparkly tiara; only to post it to his wall that same day.

Now, what might this whole enterprise cost as of right now? Well, I can quite confidently say that this whole venture is completely free for anyone and everyone to try out right this very second; providing that you’ve got access to VR peripherals.

Age Restrictions

There’s no age restrictions for Facebook Spaces, which is down to Facebooks desire to keep it as family-friendly as possible, and I’d say it managed to do just that without a single concern. So, if you were hoping that your younger siblings could have a go without needing to worry about something bad or inappropriate happening while they play around with it, you’ve got nothing to be concerned about.

Beta

Unfortunately, the application is currently still in a beta state and will demonstrate some bugs here and there when you use it, but Facebook remain vigilant on fixing some of the major and minor bugs that crop up every now and again; especially those that cause some issues to the overall experience for users.

So, if any of this sounds interesting or fun then be sure to give it a go, as it’s completely free – so anyone can have a go – and it’s a fun, little experience for those of you out there that use Facebook on the regular or even if you don’t. For a price tag of being completely free, you can’t exactly say no to trying out Facebook Spaces at least once, just to see what the whole thing has going for it!