Meta lets Horizon Worlds users obscure voices from strangers

Meta adds a voice mode to Horizon Worlds that allows users of the VR platform to hide the voices of strangers. Users will still hear sounds, but these are unintelligible and, according to Meta, sound friendly.

The feature is called Garbled Voices and it scrambles the voices of people that users encounter in the Horizon Worlds virtual space that are not in those users’ friend lists. According to Meta ., what is spoken is converted to ‘unintelligible, friendly sounds’†

Those who want to talk to users who have activated Garbled Voices will see an icon with a microphone with a line through it that they can’t hear them. The feature should allow users to feel more comfortable in Horizon Worlds. By default, the Incoming Voices feature is turned on. Users can therefore be addressed directly on the VR platform as standard. They can disable Incoming Voices.

To give users options to feel more secure, Meta previously introduced Personal Boundary, to keep other users at a distance. This feature is enabled by default for non-friends. Meta announced Garbled Voices during the announcement that Horizon Worlds will be available in the UK on Quest 2 for those aged 18 or over. In the summer, the VR platform will come to more European countries.