AltspaceVR Goes Mobile: Gear VR Client Launches Today

AltspaceVR announced the release of its Gear VR client. Now you can bring AltspaceVR wherever you go.

AltspaceVR is a virtual reality social platform where you can gather with others online in virtual spaces. In AltspaceVR, you can participate in a wide range of social activities, including group-gathering to watch Twitch or YouTube videos, play games, or attend scheduled events hosted by members of the community, such as training sessions and trivia games.

The AltspaceVR platform has been available to PC users for some time. It first launched on PC with support for Oculus DK2 and traditional 2D screens. In September 2015, AltspaceVR added support for HTC’s Vive developer kits and offered an SDK. The Gear VR client is the first version of AltspaceVR available for mobile platforms.

“Our focus at AltspaceVR is creating the most natural and fulfilling communication experience possible online, and we’re thrilled to bring it to Gear VR,” said AltspaceVR Founder & CEO Eric Romo. “AltspaceVR on Gear VR brings nearly all the features of our PC experience, but with the ease of use of mobile.”

We had the chance to chat with Eric Romo, Founder and CEO of AltspaceVR, prior to the launch of the new client, and he clarified what he meant by “nearly all the features” of the PC client. Romo said that the Gear VR client for AltspaceVR supports every feature except for the Dungeons and Dragons games. He wasn’t clear if this feature would eventually come to the mobile version, but DnD is currently not cross platform compatible.

Romo told us that every other feature in the AltspaceVR experience is fully cross platform. You can be using a Gear VR and sharing the experience with someone using a Rift DK2, or Vive, or both.

Romo told us that the Gear VR client was a challenging undertaking for the company, and they didn’t know if it would be possible when they took on the project a year ago. He said his engineering team had to “Go deep into optimization of the code of altspace, the way that our app runs, the way that we do web browsing, and synchronization, the way that we do VoIP. We had to go deep, deep into all of those pieces of code and just optimize them like crazy” in order to provide the full AltspaceVR experience on Gear VR. Romo called the result a “well-rounded piece of software,” and he said that he's been using the Gear VR client as his primary way to access AltspaceVR ever since he started testing it.

To celebrate the launch of the new Gear VR AlspaceVR client, the company will be hosting various events in AltsaceVR throughout the day, including various sessions of Sketchy Quiz, AltspaceVR’s own live trivia game.

10:00 AM PT Welcome Space Fun11:00 AM Sketchy Quiz 30 minute version - gaming, live event (SQ is AltspaceVR's take on interactive bar trivia)12:00 Open Mic with Love - live event (20-30 minutes)1:00 Game Time! (Feature our apps in the skyrise, and rotate games) 1:30-2:30 PM Sketchy Quiz with Eric Romo - Live event, gaming3:00 Game Time!4:30 Movie Streaming (will also be happening all day)5:00 Buzzfeed Hour6:00 15 -20 minute set with Sophia (Deep Rifters' Daughter)7:00 PM Critical Role Streaming Party8:00 PM Sketchy Quiz - Late evening edition with Debby8:30 PM Sketchy Quiz - Late evening edition with Debby

AltspaceVR’s Gear VR client is available today through the Gear VR Oculus Store.

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 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.