Meta lets Horizon Worlds users obscure voices of strangers

Meta is adding a voice mode to Horizon Worlds that allows users of the VR platform to muffle 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 users encounter in the Horizon Worlds virtual space who are not on those users’ friends list. The spoken word is according to Meta converted into ‘unintelligible, friendly sounds’.

Those who want to talk to users who have Garbled Voices enabled will see a microphone icon with a line through it indicating that they cannot hear them. The feature should give users options to feel more comfortable in Horizon Worlds. By default, the Incoming Voices feature is enabled. As a result, users can be addressed directly on the VR platform as standard. They can turn off Incoming Voices though.

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 18+. In the summer, the VR platform will come to more European countries.