Tried it out: Zoom for Meta Quest with video calls as VR avatar
Meta Quest now has an official Zoom app. VR users take part in video conferences as Meta avatars.
In the quest version of Zoom, you appear as an avatar.
(Image: Zoom / Meta)
Zoom meetings are now also possible directly from virtual reality, thanks to Zoom Workplace for Meta Quest. Meta describes the VR app as a “seamless extension” of Zoom Workplace on smartphones, notebooks, and desktop PCs. In a short test, the application worked perfectly. After logging into your account, you can create a Zoom meeting and invite other users to a video conference using a meeting ID or invite link, with Quest users appearing as animated avatars in real time. Meta's own avatar technology is used.
Eye movements and facial expressions are only recorded and transferred to the avatar when using the Meta Quest Pro. All other Quest devices lack the necessary sensor technology. The comic avatars with Quest 2 and 3 are correspondingly inexpressive, but all devices support hand tracking: if you put the controllers aside, words can be emphasized by hand movements and gestures.
The VR app conveniently appears as a window and not in a closed immersive environment. This makes it ideal for multitasking with the Meta Quest. Users can optionally activate Passthrough to show the real environment.
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Apple is currently ahead in the field of telepresence
Zoom is the first major video conferencing platform to receive a native VR app for the Meta Quest. Zoom Workplace is also available on the Vision Pro, where it supports personas, Apple's lifelike avatars, which have been significantly improved once again with visionOS 26. They leave Meta's comic avatars far behind.
Although Meta has also been working on photorealistic avatars for VR-based telepresence for years (see YouTube video below), there is still no timetable for their release. One possible reason for this is Meta's focus on low-cost devices that lack the necessary sensor technology and computing power for this technology. Meta took the Quest Pro off the market at the end of 2024, and an official successor is not yet in sight.
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Incidentally, Microsoft Teams is still missing from Meta Quest, although Microsoft and Meta work closely together in the VR sector, for example in Office apps, Windows 11 streaming, and, most recently, an Xbox edition of the Quest 3S. Perhaps this will change with the introduction of a new premium headset.
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