This App Turns Doomscrolling into "Room"scrolling
And is one of the best 3D creative tool I tried
In this interview, Jason Toff, former product lead at Meta, Vine, and Google, shares how Rooms is empowering creatives and turning Doom scrolling into Room scrolling. We dive into why voxel-based storytelling is exploding, how AI is unlocking new creative opportunities, and what it takes to build a platform and creative tool people love.
Before getting into the interview, I wanted to quickly introduce you to today’s sponsor Gracia AI. Gracia AI is the only app that allows you to experience Gaussian Splatting volumetric videos on a standalone headset, either in VR or MR.
It is a truly impressive experience and I recommend you to try it out right now on your Quest or PC-powered headset.
Interview with Jason Toff
What is Rooms, exactly? Is it a game, a social platform, a creative tool?
Jason Toff: Rooms is a platform where people can create, explore, and share 3D interactive spaces. Some people think of it as a game, others see it as a social platform, but to us, it’s really a toy kind of like Lego. There’s no winning or losing. You can follow templates or go completely freeform. What we’re offering is an open-ended creative outlet that resonates with people who want something expressive that isn’t driven by photos or videos.
Who is Rooms really for?
Jason Toff: Our audience is super broad, but practically speaking, we skew younger. Most of our users are teenagers, with a two-to-one female-to-male ratio. But honestly, we have users as young as my daughter, who’s four, and as old as 75. What we’re building is something that speaks to the kid in everyone, including ourselves. The whole team is essentially designing for our past selves what we wish we had growing up.
Why did you decide on a “voxel” aesthetic?
Jason Toff: The voxel style came out of necessity and accessibility. 3D modeling is hard, even for me after years in VR and 3D. Tools like Blender or Cinema 4D are incredibly powerful but overwhelming. Voxels simplify things they’re easy to manipulate, and most people already know them from Minecraft. But the aesthetic bonus is that it gives Rooms a retro feel, which our users love even if they weren't around for the ‘retro’ era it references.
How does interactivity work in Rooms?
Jason Toff: From the start, we wanted every object to be interactive, but instead of pre-programming everything, we let users select from various templates and customize their own interactions. So anything in the library has code behind it. That way, when someone uploads a lamp, it can be coded to turn on or off, or even change colors. The beauty is that this is embedded at the object level, so functionality travels with the object wherever it goes.
Are users coding their own interactions?
Jason Toff: Surprisingly, yes. A lot of teenagers are using it, especially on mobile, which blew our minds. We knew coding on phones is painful, so we launched an actions editor with visual tools to make it easier. But some of our most engaged users are just super motivated and will spend hours figuring it out, often using existing room code as a base or even AI tools to help them tweak things.
What are some of the most creative uses of Rooms you've seen?
Jason Toff: It’s all over the place. We've seen fan art, original character homes, tribute rooms to celebrities, and mini-dioramas that feel like you’re stepping into a story. We expected more escape rooms, given the name, but people lean more into expressive storytelling and ambient scenes than puzzles.
What drives users to spend so much time creating in Rooms?
Jason Toff: It’s really about the process. We get messages from users saying Rooms helps them deal with stress or just feels cozy and relaxing. It’s like Lego again it’s not about showing off a finished product, it’s about getting into that zone where creating is the reward. And yes, there are likes and views, but that’s not the main motivator for most.
Is monetization or external sharing a big part of the platform?
Jason Toff: Not really. That surprised me, especially after working at YouTube and Vine where views and monetization were everything. In Rooms, people aren't as focused on sharing to TikTok or Instagram. They're more about staying in-app and just making things because they love the process. It’s really refreshing, actually.
Why not build a VR version of Rooms?
Jason Toff: I'd love to. We’ve explored it, especially with the Apple Vision Pro, but it’s not quite there technically for us yet. Runtime code limitations, combined with the small user base and high cost, made it not worth the investment for now. Same for Quest while more viable, we’ve seen that most VR users still prefer games to creation tools. For a two-engineer team, it’s about ROI.
What did your time at Google and Meta teach you that you’ve brought into Rooms?
Jason Toff: The biggest thing was putting users first. Google had this mantra: focus on the user and all else will follow. That really stuck with me. Also, hiring great engineers from those companies made a huge difference. But we also left behind the bureaucracy, the over-analysis, the fear of risk. Startups are more like jet skis fast and nimble. Big tech is a cruise ship with a slow turning radius.
How are you using AI in Rooms today?
Jason Toff: A lot of it is behind the scenes moderation, mostly. On the creative side, we had AI image generation but pulled it it was expensive and users didn’t love it. What’s exciting now is AI-generated voices and background music. We’ve been experimenting with giving characters voices and using AI to compose soundtracks based on room images. It's wild how good it's getting.
What about AI helping with the harder parts like coding or generating new models?
Jason Toff: Totally. We did early tests using ChatGPT to code and when it worked, it was magical. But hallucinations made it unreliable. I think once we can fine-tune a model for our platform, it’ll become a killer feature. For models, we’re not there yet either training is expensive and we’ve got 10,000 curated voxel assets already. But I’m sure that day will come where you can just say “give me a blue stool” and it appears.
Any final advice for founders building creative platforms?
Jason Toff: Follow your gut. Not just your heart, your gut. Early on, I hired a big team and tried to build consensus, but the best moves came from trusting that internal voice. You don’t need to rationalize every choice. Also, dream big. Even if it sounds absurd, believing Rooms can be the next Roblox shapes the kind of bets we’re willing to take. You need that belief or you’ll never get there.
Do not forget to check out the full interview on your favourite platform 👇
That’s it for today
See you next week