New (& old) communications mechanisms in AR/MR

Interesting to think we’re going to see new takes on email & messaging, where each hardware manufacturer builds their own client.

Part of this is because each hardware device has divergent input & output mechanisms (as well as different SDKs), which leads to different UX optimizations.

At the same time, the commonality of a 3D plane to design on should provide some similarities.

One area of interest is the re-use of existing accounts. Users of AR/MR systems aren’t going to get new email accounts, so how to link or create settings for your IMAP, Google, or Exchange account will need to be done for all systems. It’s these unglorious areas of designing a setting or account linking interface which we’ll need to get right for good early experiences.

Much like setting up a router or IoT device, perhaps we’ll use a companion mobile website and our smartphones to do initial setup, or for other tasks that are “settings page” intensive.

We’ve already seen the rise of QR-code-like symbols in WeChat, Snapchat, and even FB Messenger, so this might be another mechanism to link between systems.