The social media giant spun out Messenger from its main app
years ago, meaning users would have to download a separate app in order to send
messages and make calls.
Facebook has been trying to tie together messaging across
its suite of apps and first enabled it between Instagram and Messenger last
September. The move enabled users of each service to find, message, and hold
video calls with contacts on the other without needing to download both apps.
It plans to eventually integrate WhatsApp into the mix.
However, a Facebook spokesperson said on Monday that for a
full-featured messaging, audio and video call experience, people should
continue using Messenger.
Last week, Facebook launched a test of a new virtual-reality
remote work app where users of the company's Oculus Quest 2 headsets can hold
meetings as avatar versions of themselves.
The beta test of Facebook's Horizon Workrooms app comes as
many companies continue to work from home after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down
physical workspaces and as a new variant is sweeping across the globe.
Facebook sees its latest launch as an early step toward
building the futuristic "metaverse" that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has
touted in recent weeks.
The world's largest social network has invested heavily in
virtual and augmented reality, developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets,
working on AR glasses and wristband technologies and buying a bevy of VR gaming
studios, including BigBox VR.
Gaining dominance in this space, which Facebook bets will be
the next big computing platform, will allow it to be less reliant in the future
on other hardware makers, such as Apple, the company has said.
Facebook's vice president of its Reality Labs group, Andrew
‘Boz' Bosworth, said the new Workrooms app gives "a good sense" of
how the company envisions elements of the metaverse.
"This is kind of one of those foundational steps in
that direction," Bosworth told reporters during a VR news conference.
0 comments:
Post a Comment