Daydream Labs: VR plays well with others

Daydream Labs, a Google VR initiative, explores virtual reality (VR) concepts by pairing engineers with designers to prototype and share insights with the VR community, especially focusing on social interactions in VR. Their experiments suggest that simplified avatars, such as floating heads with googly eyes, can effectively convey emotions and enhance face-to-face communication, creating a shared presence when combined with hand gestures and spatially-located voices. The team has also found that VR can connect users even when one person is in a virtual space and the other is not, fostering engaging multiplayer activities by allowing the real world to fade away. They emphasize the importance of shared goals for breaking the ice in VR experiences and note that familiar users quickly notice stature differences, which can be adjusted to promote prosocial interactions. These insights were further discussed in their "Lessons Learned from VR Prototyping" talk at Google I/O.

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