Category: Virtual Reality (General)

Social VR Platform Glue Announces Bankruptcy: Sign of the Times?

The Glue website

Glue, a corporate collaboration social VR platform I first wrote about in November 2019, has declared bankruptcy. In a post dated April 10th, 2024 on the Glue website, Glue’s CEO, Jussi Havu, writes:

We regret to inform you that the company responsible for Glue has been declared bankrupt on 8 April 2024 by decision of the District Court of Helsinki. Despite our best efforts to prevent this outcome, we were unable to find a timely solution.

During the next two weeks, we are dedicated to exploring all options to secure a successor for the Glue service. As we cannot promise a definitive solution, users should prepare for the possibility that the Glue service may soon be discontinued.

The process to sell the assets of the company is undergoing and, at this stage, the bankruptcy estate cannot provide any further information on whether the company’s business operations can be sold to someone who would be willing to continue the business. Unless a successor can be found, the company’s business operations will be discontinued within the course of two weeks or even earlier if the service providers for the company’s servers decide to shut the servers down or deny access due to unpaid invoices.

We sincerely apologize for this disappointing outcome.

While updating my comparative spreadsheet of social VR platforms, I had already noticed a distressing number of platforms I had written about in 2019 were no longer around as of 2024, among them popular services such as AltspaceVR, which shut down almost exactly one year ago today, on March 10th, 2023. The category of platforms which I jocularly refer to as YARTVRA (an acronym standing for Yet Another Remote Teamwork Virtual Reality Application) has seen a number of companies come and go during the recent boom-and-bust metaverse hype cycle. Now that the hype over the metaverse has moved on to artificial intelligence, it would appear that the venture capitalists have followed, so it is no suprise to me that firms such as Glue have struggled to find a viable business model.

One thing which any person or company which uses a social VR app for remote teamwork, meetings, and conferences needs to keep in mind: don’t put all your eggs into one basket! Investigate multiple platforms, and be flexible. That way, you won’t be caught off-guard when a company whose product you have been relying on goes under.

Sadly, I just noticed today that the XR Collaboration website, which used to offer a very useful searchable directory of workplace social VR platforms, has folded (the website address appears to have been sold to another user, who is primarily posting articles about how to find out if your boyfriend or husband is cheating on you!). This is yet another sign that the entire YARTVRA space is in difficulty.

(And no, despite my best efforts, YARTVRA has not taken off as an acronym…)

Thank you to Carlos Austin for the heads-up!

UPDATED! A New Comparison Chart of 15 Social VR Platforms (Last Update: April 9th, 2024)

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

I have—finally!— had an opportunity to update my Google spreadsheet of social VR platforms, removing those which are no longer around, and adding a few new ones since the last update, which was several years ago. Please note that this spreadsheet is focused solely on metaverse platforms which support virtual reality, i.e. social VR. If a platform is flatscreen access only (e.g. Second Life), it is not included in this spreadsheet.

Please also note that I will no longer be writing about any metaverse platform which incorporates blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and/or Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

If you are associated with any of these social VR platforms, I would appreciate it if you could please check the entries in the following spreadsheet for any omissions or errors. I will eneavour to keep this spreadsheet as up-to-date as I possibly can. Thanks!

Also, you will note that I have a long, long, alphabetical list of potential social VR platforms which I am planning to add to this spreadsheet, located at the very bottom. If you know of any other social VR platforms that should be added to this list, please contact me with any pertinent details (name of platform, company building it, website, etc.).

Thank you for any assistance you can provide!

Comparison Chart of 15 Social VR Platforms © Ryan Schultz, Published to RyanSchultz.com (Google Sheets version)

Please note: any changes made to this spreadsheet are done in real-time, as information comes in; this link will automatically update every five minutes.

Comparison Chart of 15 Social VR Platforms © Ryan Schultz, Published to RyanSchultz.com, Date of Last Update 9 April 2024 (PDF version)

Comparison-Chart-of-15-Social-VR-Platforms-Last-Update-9-April-2024-Sheet1Download

Please note: this PDF has to be generated by hand, and I will only do it once per day, near the end of the day, if there have been any changes made that day, Therefore, you should consider the Google spreadsheet link to be the most up-to-date content!

UPDATE April 17th, 2024: Upon request, I have slightly updated the Google Sheets spreadsheet so that the column header text now always displays at the top of your screen, even when you scroll down! This means you don’t have to keep scrolling up and down to figure out what a spreadsheet cell value refers to.

Thank you to Mat of the XR Live Discord server for the suggestion, and the explanation of how to set it up! I learned something new today. 🙂

InSpaze: One of the First Social Apps for the Apple Vision Pro (Plus a Tantalizing Look at Apple’s New Spatial Personas)

The HelloSpace team (makers of InSpaze) met with Apple CEO Tim Cook in late March (source: Twitter)

In its emphasis on the term spatial computing (instead of virtual reality or augmented reality), some observers have commented that there is a somewhat puzzling lack of social VR/AR apps for the Apple Vision Pro. Well, I recently learned (from the very active r/VisionPro community on Reddit) that there is a social app for the AVP, called InSpaze. Here’s a 15-minute YouTube video giving you an idea of what is possible now:

Please note several interesting things about this video: First, when you see the hands of the person capturing this video in his Apple Vision Pro (using the built-in video recording features), they are actually his real hands via pass-through, not an avatar’s hands!

Second, one of the features of InSpaze is real-time voice translation! One of the participants spoke a sentence in Chinese, which was translated into English and displayed as a subtitle under his Persona (at the 6:45 minute mark in this video).

There are people in this video participating around the table via their own Vision Pro headsets, in which their avatar appears as the still-in-beta-testing Personas (which is based on a scan of their real-life face, as a part of setup). While the Personas feature of the AVP can still be a bit unsettling, with uncanny valley vibes, and they appear currently in InSpaze only via a flatscreen view right now, Apple has just announced (and released) Spatial Personas, which look like this:

So, I expect it will only be a matter of time before Spatial Personas are added to InSpaze, replacing the locked-in-flatscreen look that current AVP participants have in InSpaze with a three-dimensional version. Mind blowing! It’s certainly a refreshing change from a Zoom call!

Also, note that iPhone and iPad users, running the InSpaze app, can also participate in InSpaze rooms! iPhone and iPad users actually have a cartoonified version of their real-life face, which honestly kind of matches the cartoony look of the AVP Personas. I couldn’t help but notice that one of the iPhone participants was standing outside, and the wind was blowing his hair around, which looked really weird combined with his cartoony face! Another guy (the one speaking Chinese) was behind the wheel of his car (let’s hope he wasn’t driving!).

InSpaze is already available on the Apple Store, for the Apple Vision Pro, iPhone, and iPad. It is made by a company called HelloSpace (website; Discord; Twitter/X). Apparently, it’s been quite a hit among AVP users, who seem to appreciate having a way to connect with each other in virtual space! In fact, in the first video up top, they talk about how Apple employees themselves like to use InSpaze to connect with their customers.

Things are happening so fast in this space that it’s been hard to keep on top of all the developments! I do find that a daily visit to the r/VisionPro subreddit is a very good way to stay abreast of everything that’s going on with this rapidly-evolving technology. I’m still patiently waiting for when we Canadians can pre-order the Apple Vision Pro (hopefully sometime this spring or summer). And I’m quite envious of the Americans who have already gotten their hot little hands on a unit!

I want one. I waaaant one!

X-HOUR Virtual Reality Showcase Series Taking Place in Austin, Texas and Online During SXSW 2024, March 7th to 11th

VenusSX, one of the participants, sent me a press release about this series showcasing the state of the art in VR, taking place on the sidelines of the actual SXSW 2024 conference taking place in Austin, Texas this week and weekend (I will assume that this series is not part of the official SXSW event). According to the press release:

The organizers of the VR conference IMMERSIVE X, together with Innovation Bridge Europe, are presenting a five-part series of events called “X-HOUR” from March 7th to 11th on the sidelines of SXSW 2024 in Austin, Texas. The series will showcase outstanding and award-winning VR projects from around the world. The hour-long sessions can be experienced Onsite in Austin, in Virtual Reality and via Livestream. Registration is available at https://immersive-x.de/x-hour.

While the Metaverse is often presented as a vision of the distant future, its many possibilities can be experienced even today. This is possible thanks to a creative scene of pioneers around the world who have set out to explore this space and bring it to life with groundbreaking ideas and bold initiatives. The lineup includes the award-winning experiences “Dragon Magic: Freedom Giants” by Juliana Loh and Mada de Leeuw and “Nymphs” by ShuShuVR and Niko Lang, as well as a live DJ set by XR pioneer Celeste Lear, will demonstrate how Virtual Reality enables the expression of cultural creativity. The session “VR for Social Change” will showcase the Africa VR Campus and Center to demonstrate how immersive technologies can promote social empowerment.

IMMERSIVE X and Innovation Bridge Europe have teamed up to present some of the most cutting-edge projects at this year’s tech festival in Austin. The selection of presenters is designed to give a vivid sense of the disruptive energy that Virtual Reality has in store for social and cultural spheres. “Immersive technologies will fundamentally change the way we experience content and interact with each other in the future”, says Thomas Zorbach, managing director of vm-people and initiator of IMMERSIVE X. ”As we enter the age of digital relationships, the Metaverse offers new modes of creative expression and interactivity, and we are revealing the empowerment of somatic experiential learning in a virtual environment.”, adds VenusSX, Virtual Sensory Designer and presenter of the X-Hour session “Unlock Our Potential: PlayroomSX and the VR Somatic Experience”.

There are three different ways to attend the X-HOUR sessions:

  1. Onsite via a rental VR headset in the following location: Innovation Bridge Europe House at the Thompson Hotel, 4th floor rooftop, 506 San Jacinto Blvd, Austin, TX 78701, USA.
  2. Virtual Reality via your own VR headset: If you have your own VR glasses, such as Quest 2, 3 & Pro, Pico Neo 2, or HTC Vive Focus, you can join our sessions from a remote location.
  3. Livestream via YouTube: If you are not in Austin and do not have a VR headset, you can watch the X-HOUR sessions via livestream. Location: https://www.youtube.com/@vmpeople

While the constant capitalization of the word metaverse in this press release makes my right eye twitch, I did sign up for the in-VR sessions, and registration was free. For more details on this series, and to register yourself, please see the X-HOUR website.