- Now the best way to understand the metaverse
is to experience it yourself.
(alarm beeping)
(upbeat music)
- I definitely don't feel very well right now.
And you wouldn't feel well either
if you attempted to spend 24 hours living
in virtual reality or the metaverse.
Don't know what the metaverse is?
That's okay, I'm not sure anyone really does.
But Meta, formally known as Facebook,
Microsoft and more are defining it
as the virtual world that is the next phase
of the internet.
In this world, we have digital versions
of ourselves or avatars.
- And we call this the metaverse.
And you're gonna be able to do almost anything
you can imagine.
Get together with friends and family, work,
learn, play, shop.
- So I decided why wait?
And stupidly I dared myself to visit the metaverse
for a full 24 hours in its current not-so-great state.
In fact, Meta and others will tell you
that the metaverse isn't even here yet.
But the best way to see the start of it
is through virtual reality.
And since I didn't wanna pop into a headset
with my kids running around,
I packed my bags and moved to the Holiday Inn Express
around the corner.
I set a few rules.
The headset can come off to eat and go to the bathroom.
Yes, I attempted to sleep with it on.
I checked my phone only if it was urgent.
I had notifications coming into the headset.
It's about to be 6 PM,
which is the start of my metaverse journey.
I've got two headsets in case of technical issues.
And lots of apps and other things preloaded
for different parts of the day and night.
What could go wrong?
- [Narrator] Welcome to Beat Saber.
Now, cut the cubes in the arrow direction
and match the color.
That was too soon.
Wait for the beat, wrong direction.
Wrong direction.
- She's very mean.
I started with games like Beat Saber
since right now they're the most popular use of VR.
And while many games allow you to play with others,
I had no real friends to play Beat Saber with that evening.
So I decided to go elsewhere
for some social interaction.
AltspaceVR, an app that allows you to hang out
with other avatars in virtual venues.
Okay, I'm gonna customize my avatar
for a night out.
I guess in the metaverse I could have short hair.
I wasn't exactly prepared for what would happen next.
I guess I'll go to this campfire hub.
Hello?
As soon as I was in the public area,
I started hearing people talk and chat and.
(woman coughing)
Apparently there are no masks in the metaverse.
I was dropped into an area
with lots of trippy little LEGO-looking people,
and I attempted to interview them.
- [Woman] Oh, a journalist are you?
- I wanna learn what you guys do in here.
- [Man] Pretty much everything that you would do
in the real world.
- I knew I had really made friends forever
when they asked me to go to a comedy club
by clicking on this portal thing.
The club was so obviously fake
but my presence in it and the presence
of all these other people felt really real.
Do you guys have wine?
- Yeah, of course, wine, everything you want.
- I even felt awkward when the comedian
hit on my avatar.
- You were the girl I was trying to find out your name
but I can't 'cause I'm trying to be subtle.
- I spent a good amount of time in Altspace
and came away thinking it's like an AOL chatroom evolved,
which I'm not sure is a good or a bad thing.
I need to relax for a moment.
(clock ticking)
The meditation app is launched.
Okay.
- [Narrator] Kindness starts with you.
I highly recommend meditation apps
like Guided Meditation or Trip.
It's oddly relaxing and peaceful.
And I could lie to you and tell you I slept
with the headset on the whole night
but we have this proof.
(playful music)
(alarm beeping)
I woke up feeling refreshed.
I pulled up some morning reading in my web browser.
Got Google News over here,
The Wall Street Journal website over here.
And Instagram over here on the right.
And had breakfast at the foot of Machu Picchu
with a llama in the National Geographic app.
It's funny, this animal has legs in the metaverse.
Why do animals get four legs in the metaverse
and we get zero?
And then I had a pretty fun and intense workout.
- Welcome to Supernatural.
Be ready for your first Flow workout.
- There are various types
of workouts you can do in Supernatural,
which involve everything from doing lunges
to using controllers to hit targets.
Working out in the metaverse is great.
I got so into it,
I actually lost track of time.
I have a meeting in Spatial in one minute.
I need to change, crap.
Yes, meeting in the metaverse are a thing.
Hi, Erin, I'm Joanna.
Nice to meet you.
- Hi, thanks for coming.
- The idea is that instead of Zoom,
you chat as avatars.
My first meeting was in an app called Spatial.
And, of course, it required a different avatar.
Yes, that's my actual face on a floating torso.
I met up with the co-founder of Spatial,
Anand Agarawala, in an NFT art gallery
with works from Ken Kelleher, AKA Anchorball on display.
And this is a great stop
because it turns out I'm in an NFT art gallery,
which sounds like the metaverse to me.
- Heck yeah, I mean, you can't get more metaverse-y
than a pixelated dog or these crazy heads and stuff
or these beautiful sculptures.
- We also went to a campfire
where I asked him about the lack of legs.
- The headset tracks your head and your hands
and so we can make it do realistic stuff.
What are my legs supposed to do?
We can't actually detect the signal from your legs.
Legs are coming, coming soon.
- I quickly had to jump from that meeting
to another meeting as another avatar
in Horizon Workrooms,
an app made by Meta, formerly known as Facebook.
Oh I see, so it's kind of like you've gotta really put it
on the board.
You can even invite people from the real verse
who happen to be on their webcams.
But again, there was this real feeling
of presence in the room.
I felt like I was actually sitting across
from my editor, Wilson, in this meeting.
- It's like in Ghostbusters,
I'm a full-torso apparition.
You don't need legs.
Oh no, Joanna's looking under the table.
That's so scary.
- Yes, meeting metaverse is fun
if you don't do it for four hours on end.
That was so much time in avatar meetings.
My eyes hurt and my head hurts.
So what did I learn from this adventure
other than I'd never recommend you do this?
Well, a few things.
It's clear why big tech companies
are fighting over this.
There's an opportunity
to build the underlying platform here.
One avatar with legs living across games,
workout apps, meetings and more.
Meta's Meaghan Fitzgerald told me as much.
- And the metaverse is not gonna be built by one company.
That there are other companies, organizations,
creators that maybe will use our avatars
and allow people to move from one place to another
while still feeling like themselves.
- Then there's the privacy tools and moderation.
It's gonna be insane judging
from my brief comedy club experience.
And then headsets will need to be smaller
and more comfortable and run for longer on a charge.
Thank you guys, my headset's gonna die in five minutes.
So yes, it's certainly the early days of the metaverse.
But lock yourself in a room like this
and you can really see the potential.