Zoom Meetings for Apple Vision Pro App Get Avatars and More
January 31, 2024
Virtual meeting tool Zoom has become one of the first companies to announce an app designed specifically for the Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset, shipping February 2. Zoom’s new app “seamlessly blends video conferencing with users’ physical space, blurring the lines of in-person and remote meetings” with the Vision Pro for “a more real-world, immersive environment,” according to Zoom. The result is an “authentic spatial representation” of people and their motions in the Vision Pro world on Zoom. The app supports Apple’s Persona feature, which uses machine learning to generate digital avatars.
“Apple’s Persona feature takes a face scan of the user and lets them have a spatial representation of themselves in Vision Pro” that allows meeting participants to see each others’ facial and hand movements, explains TechCrunch.
With Persona, “others on a Zoom or FaceTime call will be able to see your facial expressions and hand movements via your avatar,” writes Engadget, warning that “while you may not be using a traditional webcam, other folks might notice your persona cringing at one of your boss’ bad jokes.”
The new app will also have 3D object sharing, Team Chat, and more. Additionally, Zoom on Vision Pro uses the headset’s AR technology in a way that enables video calls to “surface as a floating window, blending in with a user’s physical space,” TechCrunch says.
“Zoom on Apple Vision Pro creates an immersive experience that can be scaled to the perfect size, which is ideal for users wanting to feel like they are in the same room as their colleagues and customers without the need for additional physical equipment or setup,” Zoom writes in a corporate news post.
It supports “real-world pinning,” meaning “users will be able to pin up to five Zoom Meeting participants anywhere in their physical space,” with the option to remove the physical background of pinned participants so they are more enmeshed in the virtual meeting world.
While Apple hasn’t specified the field of view for the Vision Pro, various estimates place it in the range of 100 to 120 degrees. However, a review in The Verge says “it is certainly smaller than the Quest 3’s 110 horizontal degrees,” resulting in “fairly large black borders around what you’re seeing, a bit like you’re looking through binoculars,” which could be off-putting for meetings.
9to5Mac notes that Zoom Meeting features including 3D object sharing, real world pinning and Team Chat will not be available upon the Vision Pro release date and “are coming ‘later this spring.’”
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