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Meta Launches ‘Horizon Worlds’ Closed Beta on Smartphones

From roadtovr

Meta’s social VR platform just took its first step outside of Quest-exclusivity, as the company recently launched a closed beta for Horizon Worlds on Android mobile devices.

You won’t find Horizon Worlds on Google Play. Users taking part in the closed beta can directly launch the app through the Quest Android app.

X (previously Twitter) user Lunayian was apparently one of those chosen few, showing off a brief hands-on in the Super Rumble lobby, Meta’s first-party hero shooter revealed late last month.

Besides scripted avatar animations, the user’s legs seem to be what visually separates users on Quest from Android mobile devices, as Quest users are doomed to skate around as floating torsos until Meta decides otherwise.

There’s no word when the company plans to roll out access on browsers either, which the beta’s FAQ says will broaden availability of the platform to iOS devices on Safari, and Google Chrome, Safari, or Microsoft Edge on laptops and desktops.

At the time of this writing, the standard geolocation restrictions are still in effect for Horizon Worlds, with only users in the following countries able to access the platform: Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

When it does roll out to more locations and platforms though, it will be better positioned to actually compete with the most successful metaverse apps, such as Rec Room, Roblox, and VR Chat, all of which have benefited from releasing on essentially every major platform worldwide—VR headsets and traditional platforms included. Undoubtedly, Meta is looking to replicate this success with Horizon Worlds, as it is now offering up better (and decidedly more sticky) first-party content like Super Rumble.

We’re sure to learn more about new Horizon Worlds features at the company’s annual Connect developer conference soon, which takes place September 27th, steaming both online and in-person for a select few at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters.

Luxury Brand Valentino Launches Meta Avatar Clothing

From roadtovr

Meta and Italian luxury brand Valentino have partnered to launch a new line of digital clothing on the company’s Avatar Store.

When the Meta Avatars Store launched in late 2022, the company offered digital outfits from a number of luxury clothing brands, including Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne.

Now the prestigious Roman fashion house is among them, bringing a range of patently Valentino outfits inspired by its recent IRL collection, including two mini dresses, a skintight jumpsuit, a suit jacket, a bomber jacket, a t-shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts.

All of its digital outfits are priced at $5, making it basically the cheapest thing you can buy with the name Valentino attached to it. Second place goes to two physical items, the Rosso Valentino Mini Lipstick and Stick With Me Glitter Primer, both of which will set you back $25.

Like all of the digital clothing available on the Meta Avatar Store, users can dress their avatars across Quest, Instagram, Facebook, as well as in Messenger via its new avatar calling function, which lets you use your avatar in place of your camera for video chats. In VR, users can show off their digital purchases in the company’s Horizon Worlds social app.

If you’ve never perused the digital racks, follow these steps to sort through the store’s paid and free digital clothing:

  1. Put on your Meta Quest headset.
  2. Select your profile picture from the navigation menu, then select Edit avatar.
  3. Select Store. From here, you can filter by brand and price.
  4. Select the item that you want to get, then tap Save or Buy.
    • If you’re buying an item, enter your device PIN and confirm the purchase.
  5. Select Save.

Your avatar will be updated automatically with your new items. You can go to your closet any time to view and change them.

Meta to Open ‘Horizon Worlds’ Social VR Platform to Kids Ages 13+

From roadtovr

Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR platform for Quest, is only open to 18+ users for now, however the company says it’s expanding to include teens aged 13 to 17 in the US and Canada.

Meta says the new policy will go into effect in “the coming weeks,” effectively opening the company’s first-party social platform to its entire user base in those countries; Meta only allows users 13+ to actually use Quest devices.

To prepare for the wave of younger users, the company is also releasing some age-appropriate protections and safety defaults.

Safety features will include the ability for teens to control who they follow and who can follow them back. Profiles are also set to private by default, which obscures active status and location. Worlds and events will have content ratings, so younger teens can’t get in.

A new voice mode feature is also rolling out to everyone, which garbles voices of both unknown people and teen’s voices by default. Raising your hand to your ear temporarily lets you hear other users when voice mode is switched on, Meta says.

“We’re rolling out to teens slowly, so that we can carefully examine usage and are taking a phased approach before expanding more broadly,” the company says in a blogpost. “We can’t wait to see everything these new members of the community bring to Worlds.”

Parents and guardians can use the parental supervision tools to manage their teen’s experience and “support healthy conversations about safety in VR,” Meta says. To learn more, check out the new Family Center.

The company also released a safety tutorial to see the new features in action:

While Meta only just released official word of those changes to Horizon Worlds, the news was actually first reported by The Wall Street Journal in February, which was based on an internal memo that alleged the social VR platform was under performing and needed to increase user retention to keep up with the competition. According to the memo seen by WSJ, Horizon Worlds’ weekly retention rate was 11% in January 2023, which the company aimed to increase to 20%.

A goal outlined in the memo maintained Worlds needed to reach 500,000 monthly active users (MAU) in the first half of 2023, ultimately reaching the one million mark by year’s end. At the time, it was reported the platform was hovering around 200,000 MAUs, or just below the December peak.

There’s no telling when the flatscreen version of Horizon Worlds is due to arrive, however Meta maintained it would be opening the Quest-only social platform to Web and mobile devices “soon.”

Meta’s Social VR App is Coming to Web & Mobile Soon, Alpha Begins for Members-only Rooms

From roadtovr

Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR platform for Quest users, is expanding with alpha tests of new members-only spaces, allowing creators to manage up to 150 card-carrying members in their private worlds. Meta says it’s also gearing up to release Horizon Worlds on non-Quest devices for the first time.

Meta is now rolling out alpha access to its new members-only worlds, which aims to let creators build and cultivate a space in Horizon Worlds. Each members-only world can have up to 150 members, although only 25 concurrent visitors can gather at any given time.

“Every community develops its own norms, etiquette, and social rules over time as it fosters a unique culture,” the company says in a blogpost. “To enable that, we’ll provide the tools that allow the creators of members-only worlds to set the rules for their communities and maintain those rules for their closed spaces.”

Meta says moderation responsibilities can be shared among trusted members, so creators can better control who gets in and who’s kicked out, however the company says its Code of Conduct for Virtual Experiences is still in effect in privately owned spaces.

What’s more, the Quest-only social platform is also going to be available on the Web and mobile devices “soon”, the company says, adding that rules will be made and enforced “similarly to how mobile operating systems manage experiences on their platforms.”

As it is today, Horizon Worlds plays host to a growing number of user-generated content in addition to first-party worlds. The release of Horizon Worlds outside of Quest would represent a massive potential influx of users and user-generated content, putting it in direct competition with cross-platform social gaming titans such as Roblox and Rec Room.

As a similar free-to-play app, Horizon Worlds offers an Avatar Store featuring premium digital outfits—very likely only a first step in the company’s monetization strategy. For now, the company says it allows creators to earn revenue from purchases people make in their worlds, which includes hardware platform fees and a Horizon Worlds fee, which Meta says is 25 percent.

In late October, Meta showed off a tempting preview of its next-gen avatars, although it’s clear there’s still a ton of work to be done to satisfy its existing userbase. Floating torsos are still very much a thing in Horizon Worlds, and that’s despite Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s insistence that full body tracking was in the works. It was too good to be true.

For now, Horizon Worlds is only available on Quest 2 headsets in the US, Canada, UK, France, Iceland, Ireland and Spain—something we hope they change well before it ushers in flatscreen users.

Meta to Host a “hyper-realistic” Version of Notorious B.I.G. in VR Concert Next Month

From roadtovr

In honor of The Notorious B.I.G.’s 50th birthday, Meta is hosting a VR concert experience next month that aims to bring together a host of musical guests alongside a realistic avatar of the Brooklyn-born rapper, who left this mortal coil back in 1997.

The Notorious B.I.G. Sky’s The Limit: A VR Concert Experience is set to take place on December 16th, bringing to Meta Horizon Worlds what the company calls a “hyper-realistic avatar” of Biggie, set to take place in a virtual recreation of ’90s Brooklyn called ‘The Brook’.

Following a narrative journey written and voiced by American writer and music journalist Touré, the concert will feature hits from Biggie’s catalog, including guest performances by Sean “Diddy” Combs, The Lox, Latto, Nardo Wick, Lil’ Cease, DJ Clark Kent, and more.

The VR version will be exclusively available to Quest owners via Meta Horizon Worlds, but will also be broadcast in 2D form via the official Notorious B.I.G. Facebook page if you don’t own either a Quest 2 or Quest Pro.