January 2022 - Simply Flows

The Metaverse Traits: the Good, the Bad, and the Evil

Since the pandemic, people have used the internet much more for work meetings, job interviews, school projects, and much more. We are constantly online and non-stop communicating. However, this can become very impersonal over time. So, how can organizations make a virtual workplace more exciting? They can use the metaverse. A virtual world where you can create your own avatar and interact with people in a more compelling manner. Rather than being on a conference call where no one turns on their cameras, you can make your own avatar. It can resemble you and do virtually anything in this new world. Obviously, the space is still very new, but knowing the metaverse traits, including the good, the bad, and the evil, is vital before immersing into it.

Reading time: 4 mins | Published on: 1/31/2022

The Good

The metaverse is a new and exciting way for people to meet and collaborate with one another. People can easily gather together in a much more immersive environment to discuss and work on projects. Their interactions will be much more natural, since they will include speaking and gestures, along with the video. Individuals may customize their avatars to their liking. Teams will benefit from the 3D experience in a whole new way. For example, architects could use the metaverse to collaborate on a 3D model of a building. Industrial designers can actually ‘see’ the models of the products they are designing. Scientists and doctors can work alongside at labs and research centers in the metaverse. The opportunities are endless. And the best part is that anyone can join an activity in the metaverse from anywhere, so physical barriers like distance, timezone difference, or flight costs no longer exist. These are just some of the benefits the metaverse has to offer. This article by Simply Flows highlights the basics of the metaverse for those who would like to learn more.

The Bad

The metaverse is still new for most people. As with any technology, there are early adopters, eager to try something new. Other people, though, may be hesitant to try it out for a number of reasons. The metaverse as a concept can be intimidating at first. Even I was confused the first time I encountered it. However, once I got the hang of it, I knew it would be great for so many different organizations. Of course, there are many valid concerns around data privacy and security, people’s behavior, and the integrity of information. Nothing different from the issues every social platform is dealing with at the moment. A possible solution, for the business at least, would be to have its own areas or spaces, where company guidelines could be enforced. Then ‘the bad’ part of the metaverse traits wouldn’t be too scary.

The Evil

To be fully transparent, there are some drawbacks to the metaverse. Yes, it gives you an interactive experience with your coworkers, but it can pull you away from the real world. It is easy to become obsessed with the virtual world. One must know when to pull themselves away. Just be cautious and use the application safely. Like any other video game, TV show, or book series, you could become absorbed in it and to want to remain immersed. It is okay to enjoy the metaverse experience, but one must enjoy it responsibly.

So, what have we discussed so far? The metaverse can be a great experience, once people learn its benefits. For organizations, the visual and 3D immersive experience can help with meetings and collaborations, 3D projects, presentations, etc. It can also help cut down on time and money wasted by eliminating travel, commute, physical offices, or expensive models. People may be skeptical at the beginning, but privacy and safety measures put in place can help ease their worries. Ensuring that you know your boundaries is also important, so you don’t become too dependent on this world. Something else, the metaverse being an extension of the online ecosystem, is bound to carry some of its restrictions and flaws. It is our duty as metaverse creators, contributors, and participants to ensure it is safe, enjoyable, and beneficial for all spaces. All in all, knowing about these metaverse traits helps in deciding if, how, and when to embrace this immerging technology.

Simply Flows, has recently expanded into the metaverse. They are the first metaverse to have virtual assistants and are a big part of the business metaverse. Check them out!

How do People Interact in the Metaverse?

There are quite a few options for interactions between people in the metaverse, actually. For the most part they mimic the real world. We can talk in the metaverse. We can write (or type, rather) and read text. Also, we can use body language and gestures. Additionally, we can communicate via visuals. But the metaverse is a technology extension to the real world. Therefore, there will be even more options for people to interact in the metaverse.

Reading time: 4 mins | Published on: 1/25/2022

Before delving deep into the topic, you may want to refresh on or learn about what the metaverse is.

Historically, we have been using four major types of communication: verbal, written, visual, and nonverbal. We speak and listen and that’s how we communicate verbally. We write and read. Sometimes we use visuals like photos, images, drawings, sketches, graphs, and charts to convey information. Another way to communicate with others, often subconsciously, is via nonverbal cues like gestures, body language, and facial expressions.

Since the metaverse is a technology-enabled environment, there is a fifth type of interaction – technological. There are things the system knows about us and can assist us with. For example, selecting an option from a list, which may be offered by the technology or pushing a button to confirm an action.

Verbal Interactions in the Metaverse

Talking in the metaverse won’t be very different from our current experience in audio conferencing tools. It’ll be like a Zoom call but instead of yourself, the video will be of your avatar. That way you’ll always look your best!

The voice will be yours unless you’d want it altered. In that case, there’s plenty of voice-altering technology to help change your tone or the pitch or to add distortion to your voice. I won’t be surprised if you can also change accents, that’d be cool.

Written Interactions in the Metaverse

We’ll still resort to reading and writing every now and then. Indeed, we’d need a means for asynchronous communication in the metaverse. Whether timezone differences, work and family commitments, or just wishing to leave an unobtrusive message, we’ll write that message for someone to read. Similar to current apps, we’d have different levels of security to our messages. There’ll be private and public messaging but there will be notes on the fridge/wall in the metaverse as well.

Visual Interactions in the Metaverse

‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ Indeed, we use photos, images, drawings, graphs, and charts while presenting. Also, emojis and gifs have become such an important part of our messages and posts. Furthermore, videos have grown in popularity tremendously, being a quick and easy way to communicate a concept, combining all four types of communication into one.

Nonverbal Interactions in the Metaverse

We use gestures, facial expressions, and body language (willingly or unwillingly) to convey information to others. And we may still have some of that in the metaverse. Well, excluding the facial expressions. Gestures will still be possible to see. The body language, though, may be controlled by the user. Meaning the user may set up their avatar’s posture in a certain way. Which, at the end of the day, will make us less perceptive to those cues.

Technical Interactions in the Metaverse

After so many years of using drop-downs, menus, buttons, links, and drag & drop functionality, we’d be amiss to not incorporate it into the metaverse. For example, a predefined or a guided interaction may require making a few quick selections before moving ahead. Therefore, elements of the web we know it will probably make their way into the metaverse. They won’t be the norm, though.

To summarize, the metaverse will merge the real world with technology, bringing together technology, verbal, written, visual, and nonverbal ways for people to interact in the metaverse. The result, hopefully, will be a better understanding of and between each other.

Simply Flows is the first ever company to offer virtual assistants in the metaverse. Check out what we’re building here.

What the Metaverse is not

There’s so much hype about the metaverse. Companies sharing news about solutions they are building. People talking and arguing what the metaverse really is. We’ve also chimed in with an article exploring the topic. But with all this talk comes a lot of confusion. Let’s debunk some of the myths about the metaverse, shall we?

Reading time: 3 mins | Published on: 1/17/2022

10 Misconceptions: Debunked

⭕ It’s not owned by Meta (formerly Facebook). They are just one of the companies building their own metaverse. This is a very important point. Since there isn’t a single metaverse, there isn’t a single owner of it, too. If history and economic theories are any guide, there will be quite a few instances before the market saturation point and the logical consolidation afterwards.

💰 It’s not yet another crypto. Although many of the solutions offer coins or tokens, crypto is not a mandatory part of the metaverse. Indeed, some solutions have their crypto coins listed. While others have only issued tokens as a means of internal payments.

🎮 Believe it or not, it’s not a game. True, games were the first use case, but but we’re well beyond just games now.

🥳 There’re a lot more opportunities in the metaverse than just entertainment. True, its immersive experience is great for events, conferences, job fairs, etc. But looking at the companies announcing metaverse solutions, we’re talking serious business here.

3️⃣ It’s not necessarily a 3D-only experience. You can enjoy the 2D as well.

🥽 VR/AR/MR headsets are great to have but not mandatory. Neither are goggles but an XR emoji doesn’t exist yet. 😊

🧒 It’s not only suited for Gen Z and after. Adults are also welcome.

😱 For all Snow Crash fans and regular skeptics, the metaverse is not a bad thing. Neither is it the beginning of the end. By the way, the word ‘metaverse’ was coined by Snow Crash’s author – Neal Stephenson. He envisioned the metaverse as the successor to the internet.

🆕 It’s not even that new! Remember Second Life? That game came out in 2003! Another, more recent example, is Roblox, which was released in 2006. A note for the younger readers: Second Life was a platform where people, using an avatar for themselves, would lead a second life in a virtual world.

🌐 And last but not least, it’s not a replacement of the web but an evolution, rather.

The Change is Happening

How we work and interact with each other and with technology has been changing for some time. The pandemic pushed us a few years (decades) forward. Obviously, we need to meet, collaborate, and socialize in new ways. And the metaverse promises to solve exactly that – to enable immersive, next-to-real, and productive interactions. Cannot wait to see what the future holds!

Simply Flows: Virtual Assistants in the Metaverse

We are thrilled to announce that Simply Flows is the first company ever to offer virtual assistants in the metaverse! Customers can ‘hire’ and ‘train’ virtual assistants to perform mundane tasks for them. They can also customize their virtual assistants by changing the names, avatars, and appearances.
1/11/2022

Reading time: 2 mins | Published on: 1/11/2022

We are super excited to share this first sneak peek of the virtual assistants metaverse we’re building.

The Future Office is… in the Metaverse

The metaverse is the true evolution of how we work and interact with each other. Even more importantly, the metaverse offers a truly new way to use technology. As we know, the future of work entails humans doing their jobs alongside the digital workforce. There is no way around it. Also, there is no point of pushing back or insisting on the old ways. Currently, our experiences are limited to web and desktop applications. Additionally, the digital workforce is called ‘bots’, ‘robots’, ‘zaps’, ‘workflows’, etc. Nothing suggesting teamwork, collaboration, or even remote acceptance. Therefore, we’ve set out to build an immersive experience for people and human-like appearance of the virtual assistants. In short, we’ll bring the two ends of the spectrum together into a new reality.

It’s been a remarkable journey of building a no-code solution for process automation. Having all the pieces in place, and looking at where technology is going, we’ve decided to expand to the metaverse. We are extending our powerful engine for automated process workflows into the metaverse. Indeed, not only is it the future of technology, it is also the future of work and the future of the office.

Join our Discord community to follow our progress, to take part in shaping the first-ever virtual assistants metaverse, and to get rewards. We take each and every piece of feedback to heart. Also, we promise to stay on top of technology at all times. Surely, it’s going to be an awesome journey. So, come and make that leap with us!

Interested in learning more about the metaverse? Have a look at our blog posts to make sense of it all.

What is Metaverse?

There doesn’t seem to be one definite answer. Companies have their own interpretations and implementations. Here’s our take on what the metaverse is and what companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, and Meta (formerly Facebook) are building.

Reading time: 4 mins | Published on: 1/10/2022

Metaverse: Definition and Etymology

met·a·verse /ˈmedəˌvərs/ noun COMPUTING
A virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.

The word ‘metaverse’ was coined by the American writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. Stephenson’s concept of the metaverse has become very popular and quite influential. Games like Quake and Immercenary, virtual reality worlds like Active Worlds and Second Life, and even Microsoft’s Xbox Live have all been influenced by Snow Crash. Actually, the book was a must-read for everyone on the Xbox development team.

Metaverse: Evolution of the Web

Now that we’ve explored the word’s definition and etymology, let’s answer the ‘What is Metaverse?’ question. In simple terms, it’s the logical evolution of the internet. It’s a fully immersive and more natural way to interact with each other and with technology. Another way to explain the metaverse is as the reality’s digital twin of people, places, things, connections, etc.

We spend most of our wake time online anyway. That won’t change. What will change, though, will be our experience. We’ll be immersed in the metaverse, whether it is a virtual, an augmented reality, or a mixture of both. What we do and how we do it will be much more natural in the metaverse. And last but not least, we’ll be able to achieve much more in the metaverse than we can currently. Just imagine replacing the cumbersome ways we interact with technology now – keyboards, mouse devices, fingers(?!) – with voice, body movement, hand gestures, brain waves even. Evidently, the possibilities are endless.

The Big Tech’s Take

We’ve analyzed some of the most innovative companies that are currently building metaverse solutions. Also, we’ve included our own interpretation.

Simply Flows’ metaverse consists of virtual assistants to hire and train at a familiar office environment. The goal is to save businesses time and money by automating their mundane tasks. Join our Discord community to follow us and get rewards.

Microsoft focuses on extending their office products. They announced Mesh in March, 2021 as a mixed reality, cross-device remote collaboration platform. Integrating virtual and mixed reality into Microsoft Teams is a great first step to enabling people to collaborate, work, or socialize in an immersive and much more engaged way.

Meta’s implementation will be a fully immersive VR platform as an extension to Facebook. Their focus will remain on people’s connections and interactions. Hopefully, this time around, they manage to amplify truth and positivity.

NVIDIA showcases their 3D engine in the Omniverse, as they call it. They plan to bring all 3D design tools into their Omniverse. Additionally, fast rendering and instantaneous graphic updates will enable collaborations on immersive visualizations and real-time simulations.

The Sandbox, Decentraland, and Roblox are 3D games, where players can create their own mini games, assets, and avatars. Also, they provide their own payment systems utilizing blockchain, crypto, and NFT. These companies’ offerings stretch beyond just a game because people can learn, work, create, and socialize on their immersive platforms. In fact, some believe Roblox to be the first real-worlds implementation of a metaverse.

Why now?

As we saw, there is a clear pattern in companies’ interpretation and implementation of a metaverse. Basically, each brand utilizes their expertise, extending their offering to a more intuitive and immersive experience. Not surprising, given that the web has been around for 33 years now and there isn’t much more it can offer.

To summarize, the metaverse holds a huge promise to change how we interact, work, and socialize. The technology is there, the need is there (further exacerbated by a 2-year pandemic), and the intent is there. All hype aside, there has never been a better time for making the metaverse leap.

To debunk some myths and confusion and to answer your questions, here’s a summary of what the metaverse is not.

Monthly Archives: January 2022