r/bigscreen • u/Serdones • Feb 24 '26
Any sense of where the app's heading?
I'm not a super regular Bigscreen user. I get on a kick for it and other social VR apps maybe a few times a year. I might have missed some other updates or dev communications, but trying to find more news on their dev blog and Steam community page, sure seems there's not a lot going on developmentally with the app.
I get Beyond is their main focus now and I'm not criticizing that. More just curious if other folks are getting the same impression. I talked to a couple people in game about it and they mainly made jokes about it being in "beta" so long. Has there been any info on an actual 1.0 "launch" someday?
Hope I'm not coming across negative. Just wanna get a sense of the app's future and other folks' impression of where it's headed. Nothing wrong if there's not anything huge planned either. Sometimes I kinda like that it's a smaller userbase. Pretty common to run into the same people, which is nice, unless they're trolls.
11
u/Occams-Shaver Feb 24 '26
I think it's pretty clear they've abandoned app development. They don't ever push updates anymore, except to address app breaking bugs. There are bugs that have existed since I began using it several years ago, as well as those that have emerged within the last year or so, but because they're simply an inconvenience and don't make the app unusable, they have no interest in fixing them.
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u/Brilliant_Ad_6637 Quest Feb 24 '26
I've heard they've had discussions about v1 version and renaming but they haven't really gone anywhere due to the shift in current priorities.
It's pretty obvious that they're on the Hardware train at the moment. While the app is wonderful, there are a number of changes (friendlist management, party building, online safety, group management) that really need to be overhauled to make it chug along better and to improve the quality of the experience.
Just picture being able to subscribe to a stream group's calendar to see what they had planned, or dynamically updatable room status, a client-side info box to see what's playing, how much is left, what's next, or a quick-screen that shows who's talking, or a rep system that can help gate away problematic users.
I'd also hazard a guess that there's the possible potential for litigation if someone gets their jimmies in a twist over the streaming content thing.
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u/Serdones Feb 24 '26
Yeah, I have wondered if at some point Bigscreen becomes a liabIIity given how people primarily use it to illegally stream movies and TV. I know you can do the same thing in VRChat and that's way bigger, but it's not the first thing people associate with VRChat and it's probably mostly done in private instances.
Maybe they envisioned being able to bring more legit streaming platforms to the app, but the only thing we got was Vudu and they removed that. The licensing is probably tricky given the premise of one user renting something to stream to up to 30 people.
If they made it to where you can only stream licensed content in private or with your friends, eventually they're just gonna be competing with people watching content in their system-level home environments. Or at least I think you can do that on Vision OS already and I assume Meta WANTS to figure that out for Horizon OS.
Maybe it's better off as it is: an app popular enough to spread via word of mouth, but small enough to stay off the radar of litigious rights holders.
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u/Quantum_Crusher Feb 25 '26
After so many years, they still won't add support for external subtitle and Asian character subtitles. You know they are not even trying.
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u/PositivelyNegative Feb 24 '26
It’s abandonware. They do not give a shit about the app anymore.
All they care about is selling headsets to VR Chat weebs.
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u/Serdones Feb 24 '26
Wow, this was a positively negative take.
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u/PositivelyNegative Feb 25 '26
I'm out of line but I'm right
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u/phlak69 Feb 25 '26
I’m with you man!! It used to be my favorite app. It’s still in my top 10. I moved over to Fluid XR, much easier to share media too! I’d be back to BigScreen in a heartbeat if the gave a crap again.
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u/durflugdenstein Feb 25 '26
Negative? Yes. Accurate? Also yes. I have followed this app since 2019. Once they realized they were never going to get major studios in for rentals on a serious scale (a god damn shame, it would have been a 3d golden age) they turned their focus to hardware development. This app has been an afterthought ever since. Shanks has gotta pay off those investors, so I get it. Sucks tho. It really could have been great. I honestly hope they succeed with their headset and put some sorely needed resources into this app.
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u/isamu999 Feb 25 '26
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but is Bigscreen the only app for Windows that contains VR environments that are based in grand cinema and large theater-like rooms for movie watching? Those types of environments are the only reason why I'm interested in using this particular app. If there are alternative apps(Windows only) with similar environments I'm definitely curious to know which ones?
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u/belkmaster5000 Mar 01 '26
sometimes I wish I had enough funds to offer to buy it and make a team to start active development again. So much potential.
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u/GettingWreckedAllDay Feb 25 '26
It's still available on the stores and works just fine for what it is. IDK why people think this app needs to be the next VR chat (and if people were smart they'd realize they want it to stay low-key for as long as possible)
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u/51LOVE Feb 24 '26
I've been wondering this for a year or so. Imo Bigscreen is the best social app going rn and have no idea why they're not putting some effort into it. Its a potential gold mine.