Eating together apart: Designing immersive, multisensory commensality experiences in Virtual Reality

Immersive technologies offer new possibilities for reimagining how people eat together across distance. In this paper, we explore the experience of shared eating in Virtual Reality (VR) through a three-phase study: (i) an initial survey in which participants (n=32) described how they would design a shared eating experience in VR; (ii) the development of a multisensory immersive commensality prototype; (iii) and evaluations with 14 participants. Our findings show that immersive eating supports playful social connection and deepens sensory engagement. Enabled by multisensory, responsive design features, participants developed new rituals and engaged in playful, norm-breaking gestures typically discouraged in conventional dining. At the same time, immersive dining introduced new behavioural tensions, including overeating driven by environmental rewards and concerns about authenticity and cultural representation. Building on these insights, we outline key opportunities and challenges for future research.