Create intuitive and innovative connections

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Above all, technology has one purpose: to bring people closer to one another. You can read here why AR and VR are the next big platform and how the networking of people and companies is becoming even more intuitive and innovative.

The pandemic has shown how much everyday, professional and private exchange and contact with one another can be missing – and how valuable it is to be able to replace this in a virtual way. From birthdays or watching films together to meetings and virtual cultural events, pretty much all human interactions have been relocated to the virtual world in the past few months – sometimes with great success, sometimes with less success.

While virtual meetings on the one hand advanced to the new status quo and ensured higher productivity and less expenditure of time, on the other hand it quickly became clear what was missing in private remote evenings: the feeling of closeness and the shared experiences that human togetherness otherwise make something special. VR, short for Virtual Reality, and AR, short for Augmented Reality, start right here. In a survey by Facebook, 74 percent of those questioned said that they see the otherwise often missing connection between the offline and online world in VR and AR – and that has potential.

“AR and VR offer opportunities to deepen communication,” says Tomá Beczak, Global Core Insights Marketing Strategy Lead at Facebook IQ. Even with small budgets and short time windows, real and shared experiences can be created and realized from within your own four walls . A walk through Lisbon together? A quick trip to the halls of the Louvre? Or experience a concert with a friend at first hand? All of these are just examples of the diverse possibilities that the new technologies bring with them in terms of experience and interaction and with which they connect people regardless of their location.

In addition to interpersonal factors, there are many other aspects that make AR and VR the next big thing in the world of technology and the contender for the next big computing platform:

• Cross-industry benefits: What originally started in the gaming sector is slowly but surely spreading to other industries as well. Especially in the education sector, in the area of ​​services or productivity, both technologies offer exciting opportunities with low entry barriers.
• Easy access: With the spread of smartphones, almost everyone is able to use AR and VR technology for themselves – without expensive purchases or software.
• High agility: AR or VR projects that used to take years can now be implemented within weeks. This opens up the market and creates space for a wide variety of ideas and concepts from all areas.

Creating real experiences that everyone can experience from anywhere – this of course also offers many new and exciting opportunities for companies. For example, products can be tried or tried on and stories can be told up close – regardless of the time of day or the location of the customer. The potential behind this has already been recognized: According to a survey by Bain, 75 percent of the executives surveyed see AR and VR technologies in use in their companies by 2023. The signs are also green on the end user side: 78 percent of those surveyed in a Facebook survey see AR as a new way of brand interaction; 86 percent also say they are open to branded features in AR.

For companies that want to work and plan with tomorrow’s technologies today, there is a place of innovation and exchange: the Facebook Reality Labs. This is where international researchers, developers and engineers come together to break new ground together with partners and companies and make extraordinary moments possible – for example with Spark AR. Spark AR is the tool for creating unique AR experiences for companies that is already widely trusted by over a billion users.

The Horizon Workrooms from Facebook are ideal for working together in a team. This is where users come together via avatars in the VR office and can communicate and collaborate using language, facial expressions and gestures, among other things.

Do you also want to create the experiences of tomorrow now? Then inform yourself now and find out how other companies use AR and VR for their strategies and thus create unique added value for themselves and their customers. Use ideas from the community and experiment which concepts might work for you. In this way you can find out how innovation and new technologies can be used and evaluated in your company.

Immerse yourself in AR and VR now

Your marketing, your business boost. How you can inspire your target groups and offer successful brand experiences is shown by the contributions in the topic special of Facebook for Business. In it you read among other things: