Sharing VR Experiences 'Will Become the Norm', says Zuckerberg
It’s no surprise that Facebook believes virtual reality is destined to become the next big thing in social communication, and a platform for rich, immersive experiences. Last year, the company purchased Oculus VR for $2 Billion, and since then, the future is looking quite promising as we step closer to the release of the consumer Rift in Q1 2016.
During a Q&A session on Facebook Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted he expects sharing immersive VR experiences with people will “become the norm” in the future. In response to a question regarding the future of Facebook, Zuckerberg replied:
“First, people are gaining the power to share in richer and richer ways. We used to just share in text, and now we post mainly with photos. In the future video will be even more important than photos. After that, immersive experiences like VR will become the norm. And after that, we’ll have the power to share our full sensory and emotional experience with people whenever we’d like,” he said.
Zuckerberg even predicts how AR technology will play a major role in improving the way we communicate in the future. “Second, people are gaining the power to communicate more frequently. We used to have to be with someone in person. Then we had these bulky computers at our desks or that we could carry around. Now we have these incredible devices in our pockets all the time, but we only use them periodically throughout the day. In the future, we’ll have AR and other devices that we can wear almost all the time to improve our experience and communication.”
He goes on to say, “One day, I believe we’ll be able to send full rich thoughts to each other directly using technology. You’ll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too if you’d like. This would be the ultimate communication technology.”
At the recent F8 conference, Facebook revealed its plans for 360-degree content will soon arrive with support for the Oculus Rift.