Tencent might develop a VR version of WeChat

Can Tencent succeed where Facebook failed?

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Facebook’s VR chat room, Spaces. (Picture: Facebook)

Published: 9:16pm, 7 Nov 2018Updated: 8:44am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Strap on a VR headset and hang out with your friends’ virtual avatars in a virtual space -- that’s the idea of a VR social network. Now Tencent could be making its own version of that.

“It’s time to seriously consider developing a VR version of WeChat”, Tencent CEO Pony Ma said today at the Wuzhen World Internet Conference.

Why now? Ma cited greater internet speed thanks to 5G, and more VR headsets that’ll possibly be released next year. Download speeds at China Telecom’s 5G test site at the conference reached 17GB per second, Ma said, quoting China Telecom’s chairman.

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But it’s probably not coming any time soon. A Tencent executive denied Chinese media reports that said the VR version of WeChat will be launched next year.

Tencent didn’t reveal anything about the new VR WeChat, so it’s hard to say how exactly it would work. But judging by previous examples, like Facebook’s Spaces, users should be able to do a bunch of virtual... stuff with their friends, interacting with each others’ avatars in vague ways.

(Companies always highlight all sorts of advanced gestures you can pull off in VR, but what always ends up happening is people just wave their hands a lot and do some cheesy dance moves.)