The acceleration of the project with the health crisis

[Dimaeiya333]

Lockdowns have shown the limits of current technologies for maintaining a social connection from home. Despite the arrival of video conferencing programs such as Zoom, Teams or Slack, we have never lacked so much human contact. And that is part of the reason why the concept has been on the rise in recent months.

To make up for the lack of socialising, this period saw the birth of the first 100% digital events organised by world-renowned influencers. The new generations were able to attend their first show from their living rooms with Travis Scott's Fortnite concert (which raised over 20 million dollars) or Lil Nas X's Roblox concert (which brought together almost 33 million fans).

But the gaming industry is just the trigger for the metaverse before it gradually spreads to other industries. The most important turning point came a few months later, on October 28, 2021, when Mark Zuckerberg announced the change of Facebook's name to Meta .

How is the metaverse developing on social media?
Meta and Snapchat, spearheads of the metaverse
After announcing the rebranding of his company, Mark Zuckerberg took the opportunity to explain his plans for the future of Meta and its metaverse.

In the metaverse imagined by Meta, users will be able to move around different virtual environments. The first, called Horizon Home , is a virtual representation of one’s own home, where it will be possible to invite friends, watch videos or access other environments. Next comes Horizon Worlds , a platform for creating virtual worlds and inviting other users to enter them. Finally, thanks to the virtual reality of Horizons Workrooms , it will soon be possible to work remotely while retaining the advantages of the office: being able to move from one department to another, interact with colleagues, take a break together, etc.

Despite Meta's apparent leadership in the metaverse, it's important to remember that this parallel world won't be owned by a single entity. That's why many other companies are working on the project, including Google , Apple , Microsoft , and Snapchat .

The latter is gradually consolidating itself as one of the pioneers of the metaverse with vp audit email database the recent incorporation of virtual reality and augmented reality to its mobile application. In fact, the American company - which records the sending of more than 5 billion messages a day - plans to hit hard with its two new functions: Scan and Lens.

Scan lets you analyze the world around you through your smartphone camera . You can find out what's in a food item you're not sure about buying, the brand or price of a piece of clothing you're interested in, or what breed of dog you'd like to own. The Lens feature lets you incorporate virtual reality elements into your photos and videos , such as avatars or animals.

The arrival of virtual reality technologies
In 2021, 85 million users have used virtual or augmented reality platforms at least once a month . Faced with this new market, many companies have invested their resources in designing the VR technology of the future.

Well aware of the importance that virtual reality would have, Facebook had already bought the VR headset manufacturer Oculus in 2014 for the modest sum of 2 billion dollars. Since its creation more than 15 years ago, Oculus headsets have continued to improve in quality, decrease in weight and drop in price. This year, more than 10 million models have been sold for less than 100 euros each and, with the announcement of the metaverse, this figure is expected to double by 2022.

Snapchat is not far behind, as the company is working on creating smart glasses that should eventually replace smartphones (and thus fully benefit from the app's AR potential) that would also act as virtual reality headsets to access the various meta versions.