App Update March 13, 2023

Note: The App will update around 3:00 PM EST. Please give yourself extra time to update your app before your class!

New Features

Our French schedule is now live! To access the French schedule, select French as your preferred learning language in the following ways:
- For a new account, French can be selected via the onboarding process
- For an existing account, you can update their language via their “My Account” page on the webApp

A new French Commons is live! If your preferred language is set to French on your WebApp, you will automatically access it when you enter The Commons

Members and Staff can now mute other members by clicking the new “MUTE” button in the settings menu next to the other member’s profile. Muting someone will not mute them for everyone, even if you are a staff member
- When muted, a new “MUTED” tag will show beneath the muted members name that is only visible to the member who did the muting
- Muting is available in classes, The Commons, and Take a Trip scenes
- Muting will reset once Members leave
Members can now hide other members by clicking the new “HIDE” button in the settings menu next to the other Member’s profile. Hiding someone will not hide them for everyone, even if you are a staff member.
- When hidden, a new “HIDDEN” tag will show beneath the hidden Member's name that is only visible to the member who did the hiding
- The hidden member’s avatar will be replaced with a less intrusive “coin”. The coin can move around if the person who is hidden moves around.
- Hiding is available in classes, commons, and explore scenes
- Hiding will reset once members leave

In order to cut down on Trolls, Members whose account has been suspended, will also have their Oculus ID suspended. This will not allow them to create multiple accounts per Oculus.

The names of levels have changed.

Foundations. To take classes at this level, Members maybe able to understand familiar words when supported by visuals, answer a few simple questions on familiar topics, and introduce themselves. They use mostly practiced or memorized words and phrases with the help of gestures.
Beginner. To take classes at this level, Members should be able to request and provide information by asking and answering a few simple questions on familiar topics, express basic needs related to familiar and everyday activities, express their own preferences or feelings and react to those of others. They use a mixture of practiced or memorized words, phrases, simple sentences, and questions.
Intermediate. To take classes at this level, Members should be able to interact with others to meet their basic needs related to routine everyday activities. They can express, ask about, and react to preferences, feelings, or opinions on familiar topics and present personal information about their life and activities. They use simple sentences most of the time and are able to ask questions to keep the conversation on topic.

VR Keyboard now supports language special characters for both Spanish and French
- Press and hold a letter with special characters to select them
The Commons for Spanish and French learners has been revamped to reflect a more culturally relevant experience

Post-lesson emails will no longer include individual feedback.
Beta version of ChatGPT added to Immerse for internal testing only. You can access this via the Beta version of the App.
Desktop users can press the Alt (Option on Mac) to open up the “Characters” menu. This will give access to a menu of special characters associated with Spanish and French. Click on a character and it will be copied to your clipboard. You can then paste the character manually into an input field.

Improvements

Articles associated with objects (i.e., “el” “la”) have been added to wrist menu, review corner, and scanner tool (when scanning an object) for both Spanish and French

You can now see your selected language on the “Schedule” tab of the dashboard in your homeroom
The stage in the commons now has a DJ booth that plays culturally relevant music depending on if you are a Spanish or French learner

My Notes are now saved in our backend as opposed to locally on the device when logged in. This means notes will no longer be lost if a Member uninstalls the application or clears local storage. This does not apply to Access Keys. Any My Notes saved while using an Access Key will not be saved in the backend and will still be saved locally on the device.
New members will now get 1 free credit as opposed to 2

Removed irrelevant languages from admin portal options
Removed the Prompt tool from Desktop and VR. You will no longer be able to send individual prompts to students
Removed the ability for Desktop students to change their avatar outside of the Homeroom
Removed the Notes tool for Desktop students. It is still available for Guides.
Removed the “In App Support” menu for Desktop Guides and Students. Commonly used controls are now present in the Desktop “Settings” menu
Removed the Plan tool completely. We will be revisiting authoring on Desktop in the coming sprints

New freemium Members will get one class credit
- A new freemium subscriber will receive one free credit (instead of 2), which will expire in 7 days
- Once 7 days passed and still not converted, we will give another free credit that expires in 7 days.
Braze in-app messaging is enabled. Through this, we can send a member more dynamic and personalized messages when they are on Immerse web (e.g. web tutorial for a new member)
Updated level naming convention
- New Level Descriptions for all the web pages (home, Schedule, My Class, Class detail, My Account) and Account Creation flow
Blocking members who engage in misconduct or are minors.
- Blocking occurs per Oculus ID, so a user cannot create multiple accounts to bypass blocking
- Provided a way to unblock them if necessary
VR will now store all user related data in our backend cloud, so these are available for web if necessary and also is a prerequisite for Desktop launch

Tracking source of class booking (VR or web)
Analytics view support for VR sessions broken down by subscription tier
Analytics view support for tracking user sign-up source (currently only web vs VR)
Added support to allow scheduled automatic queries for data summary logging in the data warehouse
Added support to allow joining manual and outside data sources with internal automated backend tracking data sources