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Remember how Facebook (apologies, Meta) used to look when it was first launched? We bet most of you don’t even remember that good old (read ‘boring’) Facebook that was just a collection of disconnected profiles back then. Just to give you an idea of how much the company has grown over time, Facebook (called Thefacebook then) didn’t even have a news feed when it was launched!
Fast forward to 2022—who would’ve pictured Facebook as it is now? What it looks like now is an attempt, rather a big move on the company’s part, to usher in the metaverse-a world built on virtual reality. This is why we’ve witnessed the company decisively shedding its previous identity and changing its name to Meta.
As Zuckerberg stated,
“The metaverse is the next frontier in connecting people, just like social networking was when we got started.”
Just think of all the science fiction movies over the years where people used virtual reality and holograms to virtually teleport to an immersive world. People have been dreaming of technology like that for years. Yes, Zuckerberg was the vanguard of virtual collaboration with his successful attempt to create an embodied internet that you’re inside of rather than just looking at. But over time, various other social VR apps also emerged as the new technological breakthroughs clearly had all the potential to eliminate digital friction and make socializing more exciting.
Let’s look at how advanced technology is shaping the future of social media.
Social Media Future Trends
AI and Social Media
Thanks to cutting-edge technologies, social app development methodologies have been evolving, becoming more engaging and immersive.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies have been widely adopted to guarantee consumer satisfaction and drive business expansion. Businesses in today’s era of innovation are leveraging AI to analyze customers’ data and key metrics to recommend products and services based on their preferences as well as offer 24/7 support through chatbots.
Let’s take the example of marketers, who use all this information to target their ads more effectively and create impactful content. Companies use contextual advertising and behavioral targeting powered by AI to get the right ads in front of the right audience.
In the same way, various social media platforms are benefiting from AI technology to enhance communication and connection with their audiences.
For instance, Facebook has been using Deep Text, an AI tool to monitor comments, posts, and other data to understand how people use different languages, slang, abbreviations, etc., in context. It also removes communication barriers by applying an AI-based automatic translation system that helps the users see translated posts in their feed.
You must’ve also seen chatbots while scrolling through your social media feed-another instance of AI integrated into social media.
Twitter has also deployed AI to suggest tweet recommendations on the users’ feed. The platform uses IBM Watson and natural language processing (NLP) to track and remove abusive messages. It can also analyze obscene and inappropriate content within seconds.
AR and Social Media
Have you heard of Spotselfie?—an app that uses AR, blurring out the line between reality and the virtual world. If you walk into a room full of people, you can simply whip out your phone, and the app (using GPS location) will let you view the social media profiles of the people around you. So cool, isn’t it?
As we’re witnessing a digital revolution, The Matrix seems more of a reality than fiction. The lines between the virtual and real worlds are blurring faster than ever, making AR an essential component in social app development.
Snapchat, after pioneering the idea of picture messaging applications with AR filters, took a step further by introducing its Snappable AR game, which lets you play games, like a dance-off or basketball, through touch, motion, and facial expressions.
We simply can’t leave the gaming community behind when talking about AR.
AR is making it big in the gaming industry as Niantic, the parent company of Pokemon Go, announced Campfire, a social networking platform designed to bridge the gap between mobile AR gamers.
Campfire, is a location-based social network that works with Lightship-enabled games and future apps. It uses your Niantic account’s friend list to locate your friends on a map, as well as nearby in-game events. You can host and attend meetups in person, as well as chat with other members of a group. A great example of this would be the Pokemon Raid.
Social Media and VR
“To be present” is more important today than it has ever been. The new normal has certainly limited in-person social interaction, but what has instantly replaced in-person interaction is Zoom, causing people to spend hours glued to their computers, chatting with coworkers and friends.
But this resulted in the coinage of Zoom Fatigue—a state of weariness caused by excessive exposure to a screen for video conferencing via Zoom.
This is where the idea of “spatial presence”—the feeling of being there—took off, paving the way for immersive social experiences.
In a world where advanced technological breakthroughs have become household names, it is quite obvious that virtual reality is the logical next step. This gave rise to the concept of social virtual reality (social VR), an offshoot of social app development.
Social VR – A New Horizon
And now finally, towards the technology of the hour: “Social VR”.
Social VR has been around for quite some time now, and it’s not surprising that it’s maturing faster than ever. In social virtual reality (VR), you can design your own avatars that can communicate and take part in group activities like playing games, going to concerts, bowling, or even working together.
Social VR experiences are paving the way for how people interact and communicate in virtual worlds. One such example is XRSpace, an end-to-end social VR platform that lets users step into the ever-expanding world of Manova. Users can participate in numerous activities, including mini-games, shopping, exercising, and more. The idea is to redefine how people interact, socialize, and collaborate in virtual environments.
Facebook also offers its own social VR experience under its Oculus products. But here’s the thing: contrary to what most of you believe, you don’t have to buy hardware that costs you a fortune to experience social VR. There are a number of apps that you can purchase, install, and connect to your own wearable device. Let’s take a look at a few of them.
VRChat
VRChat is a free multiplayer online experience that offers a wide range of social VR experiences, allowing people to hang out with friends, create their own worlds, play, and chat via spatialized 3D audio. The lip-synced avatars are a unique feature of VRChat.
Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets are compatible with VRChat, but you may also use Steam or the VRChat website to access it without a headset.
Contrary to what many believe, calling VRChat just a video game would be unfair. Instead, let’s call it a surreal virtual reality platform where people get to socialize, attend funfairs, take work meetings, play games, create art, or even a world of their own.
Rec Room
Rec Room is a free social VR space, or rather, a social hangout game, where you get to team up with your friends to explore and create rooms, each offering a different experience. The space is made up of thousands of player-created rooms, each of which provides a unique multiplayer activity—in one room, for instance, you’d get to play laser tag, while the other would offer virtual boxing.
Rec Room is a kidSAFE COPPA-certified platform available on iOS devices, Oculus, PlayStation, and PC/Mac, carrying an age rating of 9+. The best part? Rec Room supports all kinds of devices, including PSVR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and others.
AltSpaceVR
Altspace VR is the leading platform for virtual meetups and real-time mixed reality experiences. It allows creators, brands, and businesses to create virtual events like live concerts, comedy shows, festivals, tech talks, work meetings, etc., and collaborate in real-time.
You and your friends can have your avatars hang out in a variety of different worlds and different scenarios. Expressive avatars, spatial sound, and immersive virtual environments allow people to have a sense of being together even when they’re oceans apart.
Big Screen
Bigscreen is a social VR app that has revolutionized the way people play, work, meet up, and collaborate within an immersive environment. Bigscreen lets you convert any desktop application into a virtual environment, potentially giving you an unlimited 3D collaboration space. You can zoom into screen elements, see objects in 3D, annotate visuals when brainstorming with colleagues, and make work more enjoyable.
Mainly, Bigscreen is known as a platform that lets you hang out and watch movies together from its massive library of 2D and 3D movies available for rental. But this description barely scratches the surface. The platform lets you participate in not only virtual movie nights but also LAN parties, PC games, and many more multiplayer activities.
Looking at the given facts, we can conclude that social media is a prelude to virtual reality. These are just a blueprint for what the future beholds and virtual reality will truly open up doors like never before.
Gone are the times when physical presence used to matter. Social virtual reality is removing those geographical boundaries once and for all where users from all walks of life and time zones would be able to cross the divide and be in a virtual space together. This depicts the picture of what life would be like in the coming times.
At CitrusBits we’ve developed advanced real-time audio and video streaming social apps like Erupt for renowned businesses and names like the Emmy-winning film producer Edward Walson and former ABC News/GMA producer Bryan Keinz. Our extensive experience combined with our arsenal of popular third-party tools like Hive and Agora places us among the top mobile app developers in the US.
If you’re looking to build a social app by integrating immersive technologies like AR, VR, AI, etc into it, reach out to CitrusBits for a free consultation. CitrusBits is a leading social app development service provider that specializes in creating innovative and engaging social media applications. With their extensive expertise and experience in the field, they are well-equipped to assist businesses in developing cutting-edge social networking apps that cater to their unique requirements.
Content Writer
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