Our Top Picks for Collaboration 2021
The last couple of years have pushed today’s companies to rethink the way they collaborate. In an environment of distributed teams and workers, we can’t always interact face-to-face. While things like video can help to bridge the gap, these conferences still lack the presence and engagement of genuine in-person meetings. That’s where VR comes in.
VR collaboration apps bring people back into the same shared space for conferencing experiences. Team members can connect in a shared room space, where they can write on documents, add notes to plans, and see virtual versions of their colleagues standing next to them.
Today, we’re sharing some of our top picks for VR collaboration apps, to help you spend more time connected with your team.
1. Spatial
Spatial is perhaps the best-known VR meeting room in the modern landscape. Designed to help bring people together like never before, Spatial builds immersive virtual spaces where you can interact with your team members like never before. The realistic avatars make it feel like you’re genuinely in the same room as your colleagues. There’s also access to a host of tools for collaboration, like virtual whiteboards, presentations, and more.
Spatial users can experiment with models and blueprints, bring files into their meeting, draw on various parts of the VR world with their hands and more. You can even use your webcam to jump in and present if you don’t have a VR headset.
2. Horizon Workrooms
Created by Facebook for the Oculus Quest 2, Horizon Workrooms is a simple but effective environment where people can communicate and collaborate in a virtual world. The solution comes with virtual avatars to represent your team members, and it allows you to view your physical computer and keyboard while in VR, to help boost productivity. There’s access to features like whiteboards and file sharing, and it’s easy to invite team members to get involved.
Totally free to use, Facebook’s Horizon Workrooms makes sharing ideas as quick and simple as possible. You can even adjust the layout of your meeting room to fit the agenda, with presentation rooms and office settings. Because it comes from Facebook, Horizon Workrooms is always evolving with new functionality too.
3. MeetinVR
Another relatively well-known tool in the VR collaboration space, MeetinVR brings team members into creative spaces where they can share ideas, connect the dots in brainstorming sessions, and draw on content. The MeetinVR environment works well because it’s so accessible and easy to use. You can produce customisable writing surfaces in seconds, add post-it notes and sheets of paper, or doodle in 3D with your VR pen.
Accessing and importing all kinds of documents for your display is easy too. This makes it easy to bring PowerPoints, PDFs, and spreadsheets into the meeting too. Overall, you get an immersive experience with a very small learning curve, perfect for people who are still getting used to VR.
4. Mozilla Hubs
A playful version of the VR collaboration environment, Mozilla Hubs feels more creative and customisable than other VR spaces. The Hubs open-source project runs directly in the browser of most VR headsets, and also offers access on desktop and mobile. The solution recently acted as the platform for the IEEE VR conference with more than 2000 people too.
You will need some basic insights into things like 3D modelling to create your own hubs, and there’s access to things like basic avatars to help you start communicating quickly too. The Spoke design tool is great for building various environments with your specific needs in mind. This could be a great tool for creating bespoke VR environments.
5. AltSpaceVR
An attractive and artistic platform, owned by Microsoft, AltSpaceVR is a beautiful world where people can meet up to connect, collaborate, or just spend time with friends. One of the most attractive parts of this VR solution is how many eye-catching environments you can explore. Though some would argue that AltSpaceVR is more designed for events than meetings, you can easily use it for a wide range of use cases.
The avatar system gives you a lot of freedom to create a digital version of yourself for your team members to interact with. There’s also a complex world-building editor available if you have the skills required to create something yourself. The floating emoji feature is a great way to share sentiments during conversations and presentations.
6. FrameVR
Definitely among the most accessible environments for collaboration in VR, the Frame landscape is wonderfully easy to use. The technology makes it easy to interact with your colleagues in a range of different ways. You can import images, PDFs, and videos, as well as 360-photos and 3D objects. There’s also a whiteboard environment where you can sketch and share visual ideas.
If people in your team don’t have access to a VR headset, they can join the conversation from their smartphone or desktop just by clicking on a link. While the avatar editor here isn’t extremely advanced, it’s still good enough to ensure that you can distinguish your team members. If you’re keen to get started n VR with minimal stress, this could be the tool for you.
7. VIVE Sync
Promising the future of meetings in a VR environment, VIVE Sync is an all-in-one space for conversations and collaboration in a virtual world. You can experiment with 3D interactive content like shared blueprints, models, and whiteboards. There’s also an extensive avatar building environment where users can design a digital version of themselves. VIVE also supports eye and face tracking in VR too.
With tons of integrations to explore, it’s also easy to bring content from outside of the VR world into your meetings, like pictures and PDFs. The intuitive and accessible environments are easy to explore, and you can join without a headset too. With sticky notes, website links, and enterprise-level security or bundled together in the same environment, it’s easy to see why so many companies love using VIVE Sync for their meetings.
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