Overte is a virtual social platform: users enter shared worlds in VR (or desktop) for recreation, education, psychotherapy, congresses, and other gatherings that need more than a timeline. The project is meant to be privacy-respecting and free rather than a Meta-owned horizon.

This grant adds federation between Overte servers and upgrades the backend directory so people can find each other across operators. Code: github.com/overte-org/overte, run by Overte e.V. NLnet: Overte Federation.

Immersive social spaces are concentrating in a handful of proprietary VR platforms. Account bans, hardware lock-in, and behavioural tracking follow. Federation between Overte servers gives communities an exit: host your own world, still meet people on other servers, and keep the directory from becoming another central chokepoint.