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"Feeling that I was Collaborating with Them:" A 20-year Scoping Review of Social Virtual Reality Leveraging Collaboration

Niloofar Sayadi, Sadie Co, Diego Gomez-Zara

TL;DR

Problem: fragmented understanding of how Social VR supports collaboration across domains. Approach: a 20-year scoping review of 2,035 articles, with 62 focused on collaboration, using inductive thematic analysis. Findings: three levels of collaboration support emerged—individual presence and avatar embodiment, team dynamics and trust, and affordances of the VR environment—along with design tensions between realism and adaptability. Significance: provides a design and research roadmap highlighting interaction fidelity, shared artifacts, and inclusive, long-term collaboration, guiding CSCW researchers and practitioners.

Abstract

As more people meet, interact, and socialize online, Social Virtual Reality (VR) emerges as a technology that bridges the gap between traditional face-to-face and online communication. Unlike traditional screen-based applications, Social VR provides immersive, spatial, and three-dimensional social interactions, making it a potential tool for enhancing remote collaborations. Despite the growing interest in Social VR, research on its role in collaboration remains fragmented, calling for a synthesis to identify research gaps and future directions. We conducted a 20-year scoping review, screening 2,035 articles and identifying 62 articles that addressed how Social VR has supported collaboration. Our analysis shows three key levels of support: Social VR can enhance individual perceptions and experiences within their groups, foster team dynamics with virtual elements that enable realistic interactions, and employ the unique affordances of VR to augment users' spaces. We discuss how future research in Social VR should move beyond replicating physical-world interactions and explore how immersive environments can cultivate long-term collaboration, trust, and more diverse and inclusive participation. This review highlights the current practices and challenges, highlighting new opportunities for theorizing and designing Social VR systems that responsibly support remote collaborations.

"Feeling that I was Collaborating with Them:" A 20-year Scoping Review of Social Virtual Reality Leveraging Collaboration

TL;DR

Problem: fragmented understanding of how Social VR supports collaboration across domains. Approach: a 20-year scoping review of 2,035 articles, with 62 focused on collaboration, using inductive thematic analysis. Findings: three levels of collaboration support emerged—individual presence and avatar embodiment, team dynamics and trust, and affordances of the VR environment—along with design tensions between realism and adaptability. Significance: provides a design and research roadmap highlighting interaction fidelity, shared artifacts, and inclusive, long-term collaboration, guiding CSCW researchers and practitioners.

Abstract

As more people meet, interact, and socialize online, Social Virtual Reality (VR) emerges as a technology that bridges the gap between traditional face-to-face and online communication. Unlike traditional screen-based applications, Social VR provides immersive, spatial, and three-dimensional social interactions, making it a potential tool for enhancing remote collaborations. Despite the growing interest in Social VR, research on its role in collaboration remains fragmented, calling for a synthesis to identify research gaps and future directions. We conducted a 20-year scoping review, screening 2,035 articles and identifying 62 articles that addressed how Social VR has supported collaboration. Our analysis shows three key levels of support: Social VR can enhance individual perceptions and experiences within their groups, foster team dynamics with virtual elements that enable realistic interactions, and employ the unique affordances of VR to augment users' spaces. We discuss how future research in Social VR should move beyond replicating physical-world interactions and explore how immersive environments can cultivate long-term collaboration, trust, and more diverse and inclusive participation. This review highlights the current practices and challenges, highlighting new opportunities for theorizing and designing Social VR systems that responsibly support remote collaborations.
Paper Structure (38 sections, 3 figures, 5 tables)

This paper contains 38 sections, 3 figures, 5 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. Teams and Teamwork Technologies
  4. Social VR
  5. Collaboration Work in Social VR
  6. Methodology
  7. Search Strategy and Data Sources
  8. Eligibility Criteria
  9. Inclusion
  10. Exclusion
  11. Article Selection
  12. Data Extraction and Synthesis
  13. Thematic Analysis
  14. Results
  15. Description of the Included Articles
  16. ...and 23 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: The number of search results of the final query in three databases between 2004-2024.
  • Figure 2: PRISMA Flow Diagram of this study. It presents the details of the article selection process.
  • Figure 3: The number of included articles in three databases between 2004-2024.