Bigscreen VR

Play it on: Meta Quest (VR only), Windows
Current goal: Watch more Wong Kar-wai, Nobuhiko Obayashi…

Man, I love movies, but I have a terrible time herding my local cats (friends) into a room to watch the things. Enter Bigscreen VR, the venerable virtual reality movie- (and TV, YouTube, Twitch, etc.) watching app. I’ve been kicking its tires over the last few months and have been wildly impressed with not just how great movies look through my Quest 2, but how Bigscreen’s multiplayer social features create a wonderful, communal feel to watchin’ flicks with your buds.

There are a variety of viewing environments—movie theaters and the like—everyone has a cute avatar, talking is easy…it’s the next best thing to hanging out in real life, and much easier to schedule, particularly when some of your friends live 3,000+ miles away.

Bigscreen VR is totally free, so give it a shot if movie hangouts with friends sound fun. I use the PC version via Steam to stream stuff from my Windows desktop, but there’s also a standalone version for Quest headsets that’s easy for less technical pals to join with. — Alexandra Hall