Facebook outlines virtual reality vision with the creation of 'social VR team'

Facebook has reiterated its commitment to the long-term future of social virtual reality with the creation of a new "social VR team."

Speaking at Samsung's 'Galaxy Unpacked' event at Mobile World Congress, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage to talk about his vision of VR as the "most social platform," with the CEO earmarking Samsung's Oculus-powered Gear headset as "the best mobile VR experience."

Zuckerberg's talk gave onlookers a clear idea of where Facebook - which purchased virtual reality front-runner Oculus for $2 billion in 2014 - wants to take the emerging technology in the months and years ahead.

“Going back about 10 years, most of what we shared and experienced was text. And then it was photos. And now we're entering into a world where that's video," said Zuckerberg. 

"But pretty soon we're going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you're right there in person.

"There are lots of other challenges that we need to solve to create great VR experiences. Facebook, with Oculus, are committed to this for the long term. We've recently created new teams at Facebook to build the next generation of social apps and VR."

According to an accompanying statement the social VR team will be "focused entirely on exploring the future of social interaction in VR" and will work in tandem with Oculus and other teams at Facebook. 

The group will look to help people connect through virtual reality by applying the same design techniques used to create Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. 

As well as unveiling the new social VR team, Facebook revealed that Gear VR users have already watched over 1 million hours of virtual reality video through the mobile headset. 

The company also spoke about the continued development of its 360 video feature, highlighting its potential by pointing to the millions of views its 20,000 videos have already racked up.