While we're still waiting on the "video games" part of that promise, today Facebook launched the beta for Spaces, its first attempt at translating social networking to VR. Spaces is a digital world exclusive to the Oculus Rift that you can share with up to three other people at a time. Create a 3D avatar of yourself and hang out with digital renditions of your VR-capable friends, talking, drawing objects, exploring 360-degree films and taking photos with a selfie stick. And that's about it.

Even though Spaces is fairly barebones and still in the early stages of development -- Facebook says the beta represents 1 percent of its goal product -- it's our first glimpse at Zuckerberg's grand VR vision. This is what Facebook wanted when it bought Oculus: selfie sticks in VR.

Seriously.

"This is really a new communication platform," Zuckerberg wrote about VR in 2014. "By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures."

Facebook Spaces is precisely what Zuckerberg laid out from the beginning. It's a way to share an experience with a friend, even if that person lives across the world, and even if your adventure is as simple as taking a photo together. Spaces lays the foundation for grander features like playing games together in VR, and its goal is clear: Blur the line between hanging out in reality and "hanging out" on Facebook (where algorithms and advertisers can more easily find you).

However, Facebook's dream of trans-continental selfies (and ads) won't come true if you or your friends don't own an Oculus Rift -- and chances are, you don't. Oculus hasn't shared actual Rift sales figures, but third-party industry trackers suggest it sold between 250,000 and 400,000 headsets in 2016. Regardless of the actual number, Facebook's headset is firmly in last place, hundreds of thousands of units behind the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR.

Not to mention, Facebook Spaces requires users to own the Oculus Touch controllers as well -- a $99 accessory that doesn't come bundled with every Rift.

This hardware shortfall makes one aspect of today's announcement particularly intriguing: Anyone using Spaces is able to call friends via Facebook Messenger video and talk with them inside the VR world, regardless of whether that friend has a Rift. Facebook is aware that VR can't survive on its own right now; it has to be incorporated into our existing systems until the hardware itself is more accessible and normalized. Or, until the bulky VR headsets disappear entirely, replaced by mass-market augmented reality systems instead, like HoloLens or a functional Google Glass.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook has pounced on the AR industry as well, today announcing the Camera Effects Platform to help developers create apps that overlay objects, information and filters on the real world. This parallel focus on AR and VR isn't an accident -- in fact, both industries are a large part of Facebook's 10-year roadmap.

Facebook is poised to combine Oculus' hardware chops with a steady stream of camera-based AR innovation rolling in from developers across the world -- and within its own walls. Facebook is preparing to take over our reality, in whatever form it eventually takes.

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