Creating Successful Virtual Collaboration in VR Meeting Software
In the world of virtual reality (VR) meeting software, virtual collaboration can be hit-or-miss, successful or unsuccessful. Many of us have stories about unsuccessful attempts at remote collaboration, from team members feeling disengaged to being without the resources that encourage the same level of virtual collaboration as we experience in-person.
When working remotely with a team, it’s crucial that team members have the virtual tools available to solve problems, discuss important topics, and brainstorm new ideas–all key components of successful virtual collaboration. Do all meeting software options possess an adequate ability to inspire successful virtual collaboration? Well, not entirely.
Thus, a major question arises: is effective virtual collaboration possible? It sure is. Let’s investigate how!
Using non-immersive VR meeting software for collaboration
The immersive-levels of meeting-software can be broken down into three categories: non-immersive, semi-immersive, and fully-immersive. In non-immersive meeting softwares, like the ones included here, users virtually collaborate and communicate with each other using avatars and/or webcam feeds.
Webcam feeds are ideal for inspiring successful virtual collaboration, as users directly see who they are interacting–collaborating–with, something that is not possible when using avatars, no matter how realistic they appear to be.
In addition to webcam feeds, there are a number of additional key virtual collaboration tools that must be present for successful teamwork. Spatial audio, realistic 3D environments, and the ability to freely move about (as one would in-person) are three other key components that make for great collaboration because they create an authentic environment that helps to remove screen barriers, which can hamper successful workflow.
3) Avatars and realistic, remote collaboration in Glue
With the belief that good collaboration is creative, Glue is a non-immersive VR meeting software that is collaborative in nature and utilizes “true presence” and “collaboration tools” on their platform. Using avatars, users and remote teams can learn, share, plan, and create in Glue’s virtual landscape.
Included with Glue’s collaboration tools is a toolkit that contains post-it notes, whiteboards, presentation capabilities, and freehand 3D drawing abilities. When you’re finished in Glue, your materials and work are saved, remaining as-is when you leave them. Content can additionally be imported into a meeting space, shared between team members, and exported out of Glue.
Though not wholly realistic (and perhaps a bit uncanny) Glue’s personified avatars demonstrate distinctly human verbal and non-verbal qualities, such as exhibiting eye contact with others, mimicking the ways eyebrows adjust when talking, using hand gestures, and showcasing the ways our lips move when we speak. By applying humanesque traits to avatars, Glue seeks to enhance the way one interacts and collaborates in their meeting software.
Like Kickback Space and Nooks, Glue uses spatial audio, which allows users to hear those around them in their virtual meeting landscape. In their 3D space, Glue users can also move freely through their VR environment; users can meet in one of Glue’s spaces or create a custom one.
A drawback of Glue is that it is necessary to use VR software (such as VR headsets) to enter their virtual landscape, which is certainly limiting. However, Glue is indeed a cost-effective way to make a customizable space to host meetings, sales presentations, and training sessions.
Pricing:
- Free (0€): 10 Glue Team members, 10 team spaces, 30 minute session time per one session, 2GB team file storage
- Professional (50€ per user/month, when billed yearly; 60€ per user/month, when billed monthly): unlimited team space, session time, and team file storage
- Enterprise (contact Glue for individual pricing): branded and custom team spaces, customizes hosting options, single sign on, browser-only sessions, service-level agreement, premium onboarding, priority support
Overall Rating:
- Accessibility: Because a VR headset is necessary, Glue is not easily accessible for those who are looking for a collaborative virtual meeting software. (★☆☆☆☆)
- Price: Glue’s three different pricing options offer potential users a few selections to find which package works best for them and their budget. (★★★★☆)
- Ease of Use: To use Glue, users must first know how to navigate Glue’s virtual environment by using a VR headset, which includes knowing how to operate a VR headset. (★★☆☆☆)
- Ability to Network: While users can connect, collaborate, and network with others in Glue’s virtual environment, avatars create an unrealistic networking environment in VR meeting software. (★★★☆☆)
2) Working together in Nooks’s virtual office
Primarily directed toward sales teams, Nooks is a non-immersive VR meeting software that provides users with a virtual office experience, complete with office chatter, the ability to easily start conversations with coworkers, and being able to see your coworkers “in-person” (By way of webcam feed, that is!). Nooks places their virtual users inside a visually familiar environment: an in-person office, where users are surrounded by their team. With multiple rooms and room backgrounds (and a wide choice of room activities), Nooks promises its users a virtual office space that recreates the sensation of in-person collaboration and working together.
Using webcam video, users in this collaborative meeting software can take calls as if they were in an actual office, and users can share their live status to stay connected with their team members.
Like Kickback Space, Nooks utilizes spatial audio to create a realistic virtual environment. Coworkers in Nooks can overhear office chatter, see who is speaking to whom, listen in to conversations, and easily start or join conversations–all while live and with the power of a single click of a mouse or keypad. While users are limited in their ability to freely move around an environment in Nooks, they can place themselves into a room’s predefined space. No need for neck-craning, head-turning, or laps around the office to interact with your team in Nooks’s non-immersive meeting software.
To help maintain workforce productivity, however, Nooks automatically lowers background chatter when you’re talking to a prospective client. While certainly helpful–and likely a desired feature to have in an in-person office environment–this aspect indeed realizes the benefits of working in a VR meeting software.
Nooks users can share playlists to help keep each other motivated and energized while making calls in the virtual landscape. Additionally, the Nooks dialer seeks to drive conversations with actual prospects (naturally upping productivity in the process) by detecting bad numbers, auto-dropping voice mails, and dialing up to 10 numbers at once. To further encourage remote collaboration, users can choose from a variety of room activities to spur teamwork such as the Whiteboard, 2x2 Brainstorm, Idea Board, Free Response, and Unconference activities; team members can also use interactive screenshare on Nooks to collaborate.
Pricing: Pending
Overall Rating:
- Accessibility: Users can easily navigate the features in Nooks’s environment, and the meeting software does not require additional hardware, making it accessible for users of all types. (★★★★★)
- Price: –
- Ease of Use: Nooks clearly describes what each feature does, all features are accessible when users are using the software, and any additional information about the VR meeting software is readily available on the website. ★★★★☆)
- Ability to Network: Because Nooks is a VR meeting software designed with connection and collaboration in mind, users have the ability to comfortably network and communicate with members of their team. With the ability to easily join conversations, Nooks users can network, bond, and connect. (★★★★☆)
1) Kickback Space
Centered on the importance of providing users with a more human virtual experience, Kickback Space is a VR meeting software comprised of realistic interactions and spaces. When using Kickback Space, virtual users can communicate with each other as though they were in-person, effectively erasing the online screen barrier, driving communication, participation, and collaboration.
Like the other VR meeting software options on this list, Kickback Space utilizes spatial audio to create an increasingly realistic virtual environment, which inherently encourages collaboration because users feel like they are in an actual room and close to their team members rather than behind a screen and miles away from their coworkers.
With the ability to move around realistic spaces to navigate conversations more easily, successful virtual collaboration is naturally promoted in Kickback Space’s virtual environment. When movement and conversation is easily accessible in a virtual 3D space, teams, coworkers, and users have collaborative abilities at their fingertips, as the capabilities of in-person collaboration are readily available.
Pricing:
- $250 base price; $1.50 per user per hour when active users exceed 15
Overall Rating:
- Accessibility: Kickback Space was designed with accessibility in mind, so users can use this meeting software without having to purchase any additional hardware. (★★★★★)
- Price: Kickback Space’s base cost of only $250 and unbeatable price of $1.50 per user per hour when active users surpass 15 makes this VR meeting software a great pricing option for potential users. (★★★★★)
- Ease of Use: Those searching for a user-friendly VR meeting software where collaboration is easy and navigation is seamless need look no further than Kickback Space. (★★★★★)
- Ability to Network: Because Kickback Space was designed to give users a more human virtual experience, networking and navigating conversations in this virtual environment is readily available. (★★★★★)
Conclusion
When we can feel like we are physically in-person while using VR meeting software, virtual collaboration becomes easy. And there are many essential components for meeting software to utilize to ensure that they have a collaborative virtual environment; such critical components include live webcam feeds (as opposed to avatars), spatial audio, realistic 3D environments, and the ability to easily move around a 3D space.
That pandemic cemented remote work in many regards, thus remote collaboration isn’t going anywhere. This means that virtual environments must account for the importance of successful virtual collaboration tools to ensure that remote collaboration can be as effective online as in-person. In VR meeting software, Kickback Space excels using every critical 3D video conferencing component necessary to give users a perfect environment for successful remote collaboration.
About the Author
Brett Zach is the Lead Editor of Kickback Space, a VR meeting software centered on creating a more human experience to drive communication and connection.
References
Glue, “Virtual Collaboration Platform.” https://glue.work.
Glue, “Pricing & Licensing.” https://glue.work/pricing/.
Nooks, “Nooks — Virtual Sales Floor,” https://www.nooks.in.
Nooks, “How to Energize Your Calls at Work,” August 23, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBO7E02m_nc.
