XONE Feature Roadmap: The Path to Mass AR Adoption
After the successful rollout of our V1 app via the Apple app store, we are sharing our product roadmap for the next months, breaking down expected user flow and app features.
V1 of the XONE app includes basic navigation UX and password gated access to the AR community XONEs. In V1, our focus was on building a state-of-the-art immersive mobile experience while testing basic personalisation features. We introduced the tap to change feature for objects within the AR environment. Our next priorities are more elaborate personalisation features, access to AR versions of the XONE NFTs from our collection and introducing social features.
User-friendly AR
As a short introduction to how we approach user experience moving forward, I’d like to share some thoughts on Augmented Reality adoption and roadmap items for user friendly AR tech. Currently, people are used to chatting via text based media, voice messages, video calls and with increasing popularity voice based “spaces” like Clubhouse and Twitter’s Spaces feature. Our vision is to seamlessly integrate AR technology into people’s lives, letting them communicate in a more natural way than ever before by immersing avatars or holograms and other information into someone’s home environment. However, current AR technology is not at a point where it is user friendly or smooth, especially with AR glasses still being at a nascent development stage.
So what can we do now to ensure a smooth and intuitive AR experience in the future? The key is to slowly adapt user habits to new UX and communication concepts. We need to take users by the hand and provide lots of commonly known features, symbols and button placement in our user interface while introducing simple new features to get used to the workflow of what will later on be an AR communication app. On our end this means introducing the concept of custom, three-dimensional spaces as a new layer of communication — something that is already well-known in the gaming community but hasn’t made it’s way to mainstream adoption for digital communication yet. We can learn a lot from gaming workflows and integrate these into our technology, but it will be a novelty for many and we want this tech to be accessible to anyone.
The interim solution for bridging text, image and voice based communication with the multi-dimensional communication we want to introduce will be to provide a 2D layer of our application that can be used without forcing the user to enter the AR world. When users launch the XONE app, they will have a chat view resembling what we are used to from other social apps. This chat will however have an additional button which when pressed immerses the user into the 3D world where they can either use the AR/VR controls or walk around using a joystick like in a mobile game. This same user flow will later on be seamlessly translated to AR glasses integration, overlaying the user’s environment with the XONE world when pressing the button. This is an example of how we think about development for future AR. I hope it helps you understand our roadmap items laid out below.
Now let’s break down our upcoming app updates and which features we will release next, in chronological order:
Cloud Community XONE & Android App
Features:
- Cloud Community XONE in AR
- Android app rollout
We are finalizing internal QA during this week and will be submitting the app update to the app store and the Google play store. Depending on review times the Cloud Community XONE will be accessible to Cloud XONE holders within the next week. The major feature update of the Cloud XONE is integration of location based audio. Depending on where users are located in the XONE, different audio tracks will be triggered to give a more immersive experience. With this feature update we now have the ability to host pre-recorded single player artist performances. The Cloud XONE also features the new Dream Stage, an art gallery, an interactive ferris wheel and a community hangout area. These features will become increasingly relevant with the rollout of multiplayer features and avatar integrations.
Builder’s Toolkit & User Profiles
Features:
- Any XONE user can build a XONE
- User profiles and handles
- XONE Score
The Builder’s toolkit will be our introduction to personalizable AR spaces. With this feature rollout, anyone downloading the XONE app will be able to build their own custom XONE, access it in Augmented Reality and share it on their user profile. The properties in the Builder’s Toolkit feature a more traditional room style than the XONEs from the NFT collection, which will give the XONE NFTs a clear value add while helping to onboard new users and giving them the ability to experience the application. To further distinguish XONE holders from regular profiles, we are introducing a “verified icon” type profile addition solely available to XONE holders. The XONE NFTs will also be visually highlighted in the user profiles and in the home feed once available. The XONE Score which is introduced to user profiles amongst classic metrics such as follower count is a unique algorithmic score that increases with app usage. It will reward organic use, traffic and unique creations and will be the core input for our $XONE token airdrops.
Personal AR XONEs
Features:
- Simple wallet connection to profile
- XONE NFTs held read from user wallet
- XONE NFTs displayed on profile and accessible in AR
- XONE access privacy settings
Shortly after the rollout of our Builder’s Toolkit, we are introducing the personal XONEs in Augmented Reality. Starting with the Cloud collection, anyone owning a Cloud XONE can create a user profile, add their wallet address and see their XONEs on their app profile. Depending on the user’s privacy settings the user, their friends or anyone can access their XONE and record their experience.
XONE V2 — Social Features
Features:
- Private and public chat
- Multiplayer in AR
- Follow users
- Search function
The Social Feature is our official V2 rollout as it is adding major feature upgrades to the app experience. The social features upgrade will add private and public text and voice chats as a main part of the app’s functionality. Chats will be accessible from the bottom home bar. Users will be able to access the community XONEs they are a part of directly through the chat or use the chat without loading the AR environment as a more traditional way of communication. When in the community XONE, users can choose to use only the text chat or both text and voice chat. In the first rollout of this feature, users will be able to see profile images of other people currently in the XONE, while later on we will be able to display their avatars within instances of up to 200 users and have separate voice chat channels within one community XONE.
Avatar Builder + Avatar NFT Collection
Features:
- Build your own XONE avatar
- Avatars featured in XONE
- Special avatar/wearable NFT collection
The avatars are a core addition to the user experience in terms of social features. Remember — one of our main motivators is to make the users feel more connected compared to other social media platforms. Avatars will provide an important part of that experience. Users will be able to customize a simple avatar with traits such as hair, facial features and clothing. We are also working on an avatar NFT collection that can be used in the XONE app and amongst other metaverses.
The Feed + Scheduled and Recorded Events
Features:
- Scheduled XONE recording of avatars + voice chat
- Discovery mode
- Home feed
The feed is where users can find interesting content from friends and strangers. Similar to the feed layout in TikTok, users can scroll through uploaded videos and images from within the XONEs. To simplify the experience of recording a hangout session in a XONE, users will be able to schedule events and automatically start recording them.
The Open XONE
Features:
- Community XONE open for everyone
- Highlighted in the UX for extra traffic
- 5 Hangout areas with seperate voice chats
- Discovery area, “Selfie” booths and picture wall
The Open XONE is the feature update with which we will call XONE truly publicly released. This is due to the fact that the open XONE will grant access to a public AR experience to anyone, no matter if they own a XONE NFT or not. This way we want to ensure that no user is priced out of XONE. The Open XONE
NFT Integration
Features:
- Log in with wallet
- NFT display on profile
- NFT display in XONE
NFT integration will allow for people to more deeply customize their XONES with crypto assets and collectibles. Each XONE will come equipped with a handful of empty frames and pedestals to showcase both 2D and 3D NFTs. Users can choose from NFTs stored in their wallets and arrange them in gallery style around their XONES. The added benefit of wallet integration is that we can also provide more secure and easier login for native crypto users with the Wallet Connect API — allowing users of all major wallets to get access.
We are actively moving to a more decentralised organisation model and are heavily emphasizing community feedback for our application. If you have thoughts and ideas, please join our Discord and get involved there!
Find out more on xone.gg, visit our Twitter or come join our Discord.
