The launch marks the first time an Arabic audio entertainment app has built a VR experience for Middle Eastern audiences.

The VR offering, available initially on Meta Quest 2 headsets, will take the friendship, entertainment and engagement experiences that users enjoy in WOLF’S hugely popular mobile app one step further into the completely immersive world of virtual reality, for its Arabic users.

Since its launch in 2020, UK-based WOLF has attracted more than three million users from the Middle East, becoming one of the biggest online communities for the Arabic-speaking market.

The premise of the app is to provide online community engagement and entertainment for audiences who can’t socialise in the real world as freely as other parts of the world.

The app was born from a desire to take a friendship and community proposition and give users a platform for entertaining each other live, and working together to create shows in two-way interactive online channels. The news of the VR launch comes as WOLF renamed its app on the App Store and in Google Play in the Middle East to WOLF Qanawat, which means ‘channels’ in Arabic.

Gary Knight, CEO of WOLF, explained: “New technologies have fuelled the growth of WOLF and now enable tens of thousands of users to interact together in real time, while enjoying audio events on WOLF's unique live stages, inside its Channels.

“No other app in the Arab world combines quality audio broadcast, live chat and entertaining content creation communities like WOLF Qanawat and now we’ve gone further and introduced VR to our proposition. 

"Huge communities interacting together, across multiple devices, enjoying fantastic live entertainment shows full of audience participation, are what has led WOLF to see its users spend an average of at least two hours per day in the app and spenders spend an average of $150 each per month.

“This is just the start of a new chapter for the brand. As incredible advances in Artificial Intelligence become more readily available, we will build them into the platform, further enriching the experience of the daily online community for even more millions of Arabic consumers into the future. We’re excited for all that is coming next!”