Avatars for VR will get more realistic in the future.
Avatars for VR will get more realistic in the future.
Categories

How Facebook is building safety and empathy into AR/VR avatars and shared spaces

Facebook has made both augmented reality and virtual reality experiences that reach a lot of people — more than a billion users in the case of its Spark AR smartphone apps. But the realism of the avatars and the perceived safety of those experiences still need improvement.

So the company showcased what it’s doing on those fronts to make VR and AR avatars more expressive and shared social environments safer. Those efforts followed the day two theme of “responsible innovation” at Facebook’s F8 conference in San Jose, California.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.