With VR headsets, the digital world is no longer restricted to the width and height of a screen.
Things get infinite, because users can interact with pretty much anything in their surroundings, by just moving their head. And Apple wants to redefine this experience, with a device it calls the Vision Pro.
While the Vision Pro has received praise and positive reviews, the device is on the higher scale in expensiveness, and according to many speculations, this can reduce its appeal.
Because of this, some app makers refrain from investing their time and money on developing apps for the Vision Pro.
But not for Zoom.
The popular videotelephony and online chat services through a cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform used for video communications, messaging, voice calls, conference rooms for video meetings, virtual events and contact centers, is embracing the device availability with welcoming arms.
Zoom’s Vision Pro app that is meant to be launched alongside Apple’s headset, lets wearers use its "persona", or a digital avatar based on their face scans, during video calls, even when they’re not wearing a headset, much like Apple’s FaceTime app for the Vision Pro.
Taking advantage of the device's AR capabilities, the Zoom app allows the blending of users' physical environment while surfacing as a floating window.
Zoom app shall also let users enjoy an immersive experience that can be scaled to the ideal size, which, Zoom explained, is great for those wanting "to feel like they’re in the same room as their colleagues and customers, without the need for additional physical equipment or setup."
The aim of the app is to "seamlessly blend videoconferencing with user’s physical space," Zoom said in an announcement, "blurring the lines of in-person and remote meetings with the infinite canvas on Apple Vision Pro, helping distributed teams feel more connected and included."
Not just that, because the videoconferencing app plans to also add 3D object sharing, which shall give users the ability to share 3D files and see how they look in their surrounding environment.
The app also has plans to add its Slack competitor, Team Chat, to the Vision Pro app as well.
Zoom also plans on bringing even more features to the app, including what it calls the "real-world pinning," which is meant to make calls feel more immersive by letting Vision Pro users pin up to five Zoom meeting participants in their physical space while removing the callers’ backgrounds.
Commenting on the new app, Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom, said that the Zoom app for the Apple Vision Pro shall help people "stay connected no matter when and where they work, or how they communicate and collaborate."
"The integration of Zoom on Apple Vision Pro and visionOS extends our platform promise of allowing participants the ultimate meeting experience from anywhere and delivers on our commitment of seamless collaboration and communication."
By blurring the lines of in-person and remote meetings, Zoom wishes to help users feel more connected with one another, in this relatively young technology of borderless display.
Besides Zoom, a number of developers are ready to launch their own native apps for the Vision Pro, while some notable services are missing.
Netflix, for example, doesn't have an app for the Vision Pro at launch, which means that users shall be forced to use a Vision Pro-based web browsers instead.
According to Netflix's co-CEO, the Apple Vision Pro, despite its positive reviews, has a "subscale" market due to its price tag.
But things can change.