360 / VR Facebook

I can talk endlessly about VR. This subject really gets me thinking a lot about social ideology and how VR will become a factor into evolving that. I believe Facebook will no longer JUST be a 2D platform; I believe it’ll have a 3D platform interaction mode as well included with the application. Instead of logging in and scrolling down the page on a phone; we may be able “wake up” in a virtual world and interact with friends and family which I would be 100% okay participating in.

The hardware would be your typical VR headset along with headphones. For some reason I see Facebook trying to produce exclusive headsets for their app so customers can buy from their company but if that hinders Facebook’s success then I see it being open and accessible from anyone who has any kind of VR headset, no matter what brand. Sort of like how the iPhone started. iPhone was JUST an AT&T phone but then Apple probably noticed how much bigger they can become if EVERY phone carrier sold iPhones.

I picture the interface like a ‘neighborhood’. The number of houses in your neighborhood is the number of friends you have on Facebook. You would have a ‘house’ which would be your profile page. These Facebook houses would have 3 main rooms.

• One room would be their ‘photo room’ where you can walk in and view their photos and videos.
• One room would be their ‘living room’ which is being able to see their posts and interactivity on their wall if it isn’t private
• one room would be the ‘guest room’ where you can view their friends list.

Aside from people’s houses and how the infrastructure would look like, we can talk about other features that Facebook offers and how that would look in the VR world.

•  If someone wanted to send a message, that person can go to their mailbox and leave a message.
• Facebook pages would be considered “VR shops” that users can visit and explore.
• Police stations, fire departments, and hospitals would be your “help center and settings” option for your world.

If you and a friend were online at the same time, you and that friend can explore the Facebook VR world where you can shop for your avatar and do fun activities with your Facebook friend. Having this entertainment in the VR world would make people want to it use it more.

Accessibility, simplicity, full customization, and even having a reward system implemented in VR Facebook would help establish an official, fully immersive 3D world for social media engagement.

I don’t know if this thought or idea has been thought of in detail like this before but if I had the network, tools, knowledge and technology to bring these ideas to real life; this would be a no brainer idea for me to start, especially if Facebook doesn’t plan to have a VR world for their app in the future. I could continue in way more detail on how I think Facebook VR could look like but then it wouldn’t be a blog at that point, it would start to look like a blueprint/manual for how to build a VR world for Facebook.

As far as 360 video story telling, I believe this would be even greater for the producer and consumer. This can give a whole new perspective on things based on how immersive it is. Being able to move and interact could make it seem more personable. Those are some of the advantages. The disadvantages i see is how slow our generation can get to being accustomed to this type of technology. Someone who isn’t tech savvy can have problems trying to comprehend the material through 360 video.