What Is an Always-On Virtual Office, and Does It Bring Back Spontaneous Collaboration?

An always-on virtual office is a space your team is present in for the whole working day, the way you are present in a physical office, rather than a meeting you join and leave. Spontaneous collaboration, the two-minute question, the overheard problem, the "come look at this," only happens when people can see each other and approach each other without scheduling. Katmai is built for exactly that: a photorealistic 3D office in the browser where your team is on live video at desks and in rooms all day, so you see who is around, walk over and talk. It is $25 per user per month with every feature included, no minimum number of users and free guests. Avatar offices and room maps also run all day, but what you see is a character or a dot, and that changes how often people actually approach each other.

This guide is published by Katmai, which makes virtual office software. Competitor facts come from each vendor's own site in October 2026; check them before you buy.

Why calls can't be always-on

A call has a start, an end and a link. Nobody leaves Zoom open for eight hours, and if they did, a grid of twenty faces staring at each other is not an office. So remote teams fall back on chat, and chat turns every small question into a message that waits. The thing that got lost when offices closed was not meetings. Teams have more meetings than ever. What got lost was everything between the meetings.

What an always-on office needs

Three things make presence work rather than feel like surveillance. First, you need to be able to read the room: who is at their desk, who is in a meeting, who is heads down. Second, approaching someone has to cost almost nothing, less than typing a message. Third, the people have to look like people. A team that sees real faces behaves differently from a team that sees sprites, because you can read whether now is a good moment.

How the main products handle presence

What always-on looks like in Katmai

Everyone opens Katmai in the browser at the start of the day and sits at a desk in a photorealistic 3D office. Cameras are on while people are at their desks, so a glance across the room tells you who is free. When you need someone, you walk over, the way you would in a real office, and talk. Meetings happen in rooms inside the office, so you can also see who is in a meeting and leave them alone. Clients and candidates join free by link and find your team in your office. Katmai recommends 16GB of RAM and an i7 processor or better, and getting started is a demo, then a configuration meeting where the Katmai team sets up your spaces and adds your users. One plan, $25 per user per month, every feature included, no minimum number of users.

Norms that make it work

Always-on fails when nobody agrees how to use it. The teams that get spontaneous collaboration back set a few rules: camera on at your desk during core hours, a quiet room for heads-down work where nobody interrupts, meeting rooms for anything scheduled, and the understanding that walking up to someone is welcome. Managers go first. If the leadership team is visibly present, the rest of the team follows.

The objections, honestly

Does it feel like surveillance? It can if managers treat presence as attendance, and it doesn't if they treat it as an office. Is camera fatigue real? Yes, on calls, where you stare at a grid; it is much less so at a desk, where nobody is staring at you. Does it need bandwidth? Live video all day needs a decent connection and a decent machine, which is why Katmai publishes a hardware recommendation rather than pretending otherwise.

FAQ

What is an always-on virtual office?

A virtual office your team stays in for the working day, with presence you can see, rather than a meeting you join. Katmai is an always-on office with real people on live video in a photorealistic 3D space.

Does an always-on virtual office mean the camera is on all day?

At your desk during core hours, in the teams that get the most from it. Quiet rooms and meeting rooms cover the rest of the day.

Which virtual offices show real people instead of avatars?

Katmai, in a 3D office, and Cosmos Video on a 2D map. Gather, Kumospace and SoWork show avatars; Roam and Sococo show rooms.

How much does an always-on virtual office cost?

Katmai is $25 per user per month with every feature included, no minimum number of users and free guests. Avatar offices run from free tiers to about $12 to $16 per user per month; see each vendor's pricing page.

Does Katmai require a headset?

No. Katmai runs in the browser with no download and no headset, with 16GB of RAM and an i7 processor or better recommended.

Related: Katmai vs Zoom · Can a virtual office replace Slack and Zoom? · How to set up a virtual office · Katmai pricing · Book a Katmai demo