For what purpose though? Front facing cameras are in every device now and IM/voice chat is still more common. I guess it depends if you are communicating for function or for social/entertainment purposes. I just don't see the added value of avatar communication other than the novelty of being a video game character or a fox person
The value of avatar based communication, vs video in particular, is about:
- social presence: the feeling of being together and of unmediated communication
- shared spatial awareness: the ability to have a shared reference frame of physical reality
these are the two key features of face to face communication that digital communication tools have largely failed to replicate. (as studied by academic research)
I also conjecture there's a third:
- ability to dynamically spawn and manipulate contextual mixed media in a shared spatial environment (videos, images, 3d models, data, etc)
These three characteristics combined are met already today to some degree by modern day video games, but VR/AR seems likely to be the key tool to knock down much of the barrier regarding social presence due to its ability to transmit many more forms of non-verbal communication between people than existing tools.
