immersea startup focused on teaching languages in VR has launched their social app on Quest 2 that allows subscribers to participate in live Spanish or English classes, peer-to-peer conversation exercises, and weekly community events.
When Immerse first used a Series A investment of $1.5 million At the end of 2020, most of the world was working and going to school from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea: Learn a language through complete immersion, with VR that allows you to talk face-to-face with other students and an instructor while taking on real-world scenarios.
In March 2022, the company further assured of $9 million in its Series B, which allowed it to develop its app for Quest 2, in addition to partnering with institutions around the world to offer a fully immersive language learning platform. At the time, the company focused on teaching English as a foreign language, but now Immerse . has launched his app on Quest 2 for users who want to improve their Spanish or English. Membership costs $45 per month, which includes:
- 12 Live VR lessons per month facilitated by an expert phrasebook
- 24/7 access to the Social lounge for Live Conversation Practice
- Personalized feedback to accelerate the growth of fluency
- Weekly events to build new community and cultural understanding
Immerse will also add French and Japanese to their list of available languages sometime in 2023. After that, the company will increase its membership fee to $60 per month. However, the app offers a seven-day free trial to see if it’s right for you. For now, the free trial is only available to users who want to learn Spanish.
In defense of the app’s membership fees, Immerse had this to say in the comments of a user review:
Our membership fee is $45 per month because we offer more than typical language learning apps. Our monthly membership includes 12 live VR lessons per month, facilitated by a live expert phrasebook, plus 24/7 access to the Social Lounge where you can enjoy real conversation exercises with other students from around the world.
12 lessons on a traditional tutoring platform would cost over $200, and to experience language immersion in real life would require high international travel costs well over $45 per month. Our goal is to increase people’s access to those kinds of immersive language learning experiences, but at a fraction of the cost. We hope you consider a 7-day free trial and book our orientation to learn more about this new kind of learning experience we have to offer.
The studio says immerse will also be coming to other VR headsets in the future. Towards greater adoption, the company will pioneer best practices for immersive teaching and learning, building what it says it hopes will be “a thriving global virtual community that will one day rival those of Rec Room, Robloxand VRChat†
The studio also released a 6 minute video showing off the app, and some of the things you can do with it: