When Left Behind in Multi-User Virtual Reality: Clues to Indicate the Absence of Users

Recently, with the increasing popularity of immersive virtual reality, synchronous communication via avatars in virtual worlds has become more popular. In contrast to asynchronous communication—like social media platforms—people expect others to be present during embodied, virtual interactions. However, for a variety of reasons, this is not always the case.While some communication media provide a good indicator that the other is still present, such as live images of the conversation partner in video conferencing, not all media do provide this information naturally, e.g., when the interlocutor is silent on the phone. In immersive multi-user virtual reality, a wrong and misleading signal may even be provided when an avatar is still shown while its owner is absent. In many situations, an assumed presence of the other who is actually no longer there can lead to confusion. In the presented empirical study, we show that users in shared immersive environments prefer an indicator when a person is absent and that the preferred way of visualization depends on the use case.