On July 30 the entire world celebrates the International Day of Friendship, a holiday designated by the United Nations. More than ever, this celebration is important.
The last two years tested people in the most difficult ways: from fear for their health and safety to the absence of regular meetings with friends at the end of a busy day or during the weekend.
However, technology stepped in to allow people to stay in touch with each other. And, at the moment, you have the choice between several VR apps for socializing, which allow you to connect with all your loved ones, no matter how far away they live.
These apps do not and should not replace in-person meetings. However, when this is impossible, VR apps for socializing are the next best thing. And we believe that they will continue to be helpful, even after we are fully back to a life of direct interactions with others and freedom to travel anywhere we want.
8 VR Apps for Socializing
Without further introductions, these are the best VR apps for socializing that you can try in order to connect with all your friends on the International Day of Friendship and on any other day of the year.
1. Meta Horizon Home
Meta is one of the big companies working on building the metaverse – a digital world replicating all the personal and business interactions we have in the real world.
The latest contribution of the parent company of Facebook to the metaverse is Horizon Home. This is one of the VR apps for socializing where you can build an avatar using a wide range of features. The racial and ethnic variety of these features allows anyone to create their digital likeness.
For the virtual meetings, you can use your own home environment, or a few predefined environments, such as a space station, a Japanese inn, or a patio overlooking mountains at sunset.
Meta Horizon Home has been launched as an update to the Quest 2 headset, joining Meta Horizon Worlds – another VR app for socializing focused on playing games and attending concerts and sports events.
2. Bigscreen
Bigscreen is more than just one of the popular VR apps for socializing. It can be used for any type of virtual meetings, including discussing projects with work colleagues, watching films and TV series, and playing games.
The app features spatial voice chat, public and private meeting rooms, as well as a rich variety of options for customizing your avatar. It works on the following platforms and devices:
- Oculus Quest;
- Oculus Rift S;
- Valve Index’
- Windows Mixed Reality;
- Vive.
3. Rec Room
If you are looking for VR apps for socializing that all your friends can use, irrespective of the platform or device they have, Rec Room is the best choice. It is compatible with Android, iOS, Windows, XBox, PlayStation, and various VR headsets.
In Rec Room, you can also build games, not only play existing ones. You can collaborate with your friends, test your 3D drawing skills with the Maker Pen, and enjoy the most creative or outlandish games created by other users.
The app also has a Junior Mode, which displays only kid-safe content.
4. AlcoveVR
Designed for Oculus Quest and Oculus Go, this app aims to create a cozy family corner in the virtual world. This is the digital place where families can explore casual games, travel destinations, or relax together and enjoy meaningful conversations.
The environment built by AlcoveVR creators is a modern and comfortable living room, in many ways similar to the one you have in the real world. This helps overcome the awkwardness of not being physically present and encouraging virtual conversations, just like in the real world.
5. Half + Half
We continue our list of recommendations for VR apps for socializing with Half + Half. This app wants you not only to be able to meet friends anytime, but also engage in exciting VR adventures. In this app, your avatar can swim, glide, do silly dances, and play hide and seek.
A fun app in a colorful VR environment, it is also a great meeting place for families with kids and for schoolmates.
6. VRChat
VRChat is the right platform for those who wish to socialize in creative and surprising environments. So far, the platform boasts more than 25,000 community-created worlds. You can create your own world using the Unity SDK. You don’t need to know anything about graphic design or app development.
VRChat is available on four platforms: Steam, Quest, Rift, and Viveport. For this reason and for the versatility of this platform, we add it to our list of VR apps for socializing.
7. AltspaceVR
You can use AltspaceVR to meet with friends, collaborate with colleagues or interact with customers. This is one of the VR apps for socializing, business, and branding that is gaining a lot of traction. There is a growing need for an alternative workspace where people can interact in ways that imitate the real world.
And virtual reality provides this type of space. In AltspaceVR, your avatar can be the best fit for your purposes: dressed in a business suit, wearing smart casual clothes, or the types of clothes you wear when you are out having fun with friends. It is available for HTC Vive, Oculus, Windows Mixed Reality, and PCs (both Windows and Macs).
8. vTime XR
Do you want to hang out with friends in the most amazing exotic destinations? Then you need to try vTime XR. This is the last recommendation on our list of VR apps for socializing. Start by customizing your avatar to your likeness and choose your virtual destination from the library.
You can stay by a serene mountain lake, on an exotic beach, in a sumptuous Victorian library, or on a spaceship deck. This will help you experience your dreams of travel (including time travel!) with your best friends and family members.
vTime XR is available for download on Google Play, and App Store, and works with Samsung Gear VR, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, and Google Daydream.
