In the wide range of applications that you can experience in virtual reality, social virtual reality is often the most interesting. So many of the games played on consoles and phones are now deeply social, with multiplayer by default and fun ways to share games in person, but doing it all in VR is a little more difficult. Not every headset lets you get up and walk around, but every VR experience in a virtual room with someone else is a unique opportunity to explore a new world with new friends.
After AltspaceVR announced plans to close in early August, it announced that it would not disappear anytime soon. After a wave of fan feedback, the team is now in talks with «others who are passionate about AltspaceVR» in an effort to keep the service going in the near future. However, what will happen to the service is still relatively unclear and will be seen in the coming months. Even with the return of Altspace, there are still some great social events worth checking out. Here are some of our favorites!
VTIME
One of AltSpace’s biggest features is its ubiquity, and the only other VR app that comes close is vTime. This app allows Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard (Apple and Android) and Google Daydream users to team up in quad rooms to chat and share with each other.
With vTime, you can create a cartoon human avatar and chat in different rooms of a large network. These rooms offer many different features, including 360-degree photo sharing with the room and video sharing. It’s a largely seated VR experience, so don’t expect to be able to move around as much as you might be used to at the moment.
HTC Vive and PlayStation VR users are currently not officially supported, but if you’re familiar with the ReVive mod for SteamVR, you should be able to use vTime on your Vive just fine.
Check vTime for your VR headset
Restroom
If you want to have fun with your friends while in the same room, Oculus and Vive owners should consider Rec Room. This app allows many friends to gather in, well, sort of a break room. You can play Disc Golf, Paintball, Charades and a few co-op missions.
It’s a free app, but is limited to Oculus and HTC hardware for now. If you like to play different mini-games with your friends in virtual reality, this is worth a try.
- Find a break room on SteamVR
- Find a break room on Oculus
SteamVR Home Beta