May was a massive month for foundational upgrades. We launched our first iteration of Gallery Mode to bridge the gap between virtual office immersion and professional video conferencing, alongside a total overhaul of our onboarding flows.

🚀 Key Highlights

• Introducing Focused Meetings: Focused meetings are now easier than ever. You can toggle between the game world and a full-screen video tile layout (similar to Zoom). Private meetings and external guests now see this view by default to maximize focus.

• Streamlined Onboarding: We’ve completely rebuilt the entry path for both Office Creators and Teammates. New checklists, clearer visual steps, and a redesigned "Path to Entry" make it easier than ever to get your team up and running.

• Proximity Circles: To take the guesswork out of connecting, we’ve enabled Proximity Circles by default. You can now see exactly how close you need to be to a teammate to trigger a video connection.

• Instant Meetings: You can now spin up a meeting instantly by clicking the + button in the center toolbar. Invite teammates or external guests with a single click.

🛠️ Product & UX Fixes

• Active Speaker Prioritization: We enabled a new logic that automatically highlights and prioritizes the video tile of whoever is currently speaking.

• App Deep Linking: Clicking a SoWork meeting link in your browser will now automatically redirect you to the Desktop App for a more stable experience.

• Workspot Upgrades: You can now drag Workspots (desks) around in Mapmaker for easier floor planning. We also squashed several cosmetic bugs affecting their appearance.

• Meeting Recordings: Implemented critical backend fixes to ensure meeting recordings are processed more reliably.

🎨 Personalization & Pets

• New Birds & Pets: Added new avatar companions including a flamingo, rooster, eagle, and "Boo" the ghost pet.

• Style Upgrades: New Hawaiian shirts, a Rastafarian dreadlocks hairstyle, and a sneak peek at our upcoming "cleaner" UI theme.

🏗️ Coming Soon

The "Glow Up" is in full swing. We are currently working on moving the entire navigation to a left sidebar and developing a new "top-down" movement experience for even smoother office navigation.

Vish CEO, SoWork