Meta Purportedly Dissolves Team Focused On Building AR/VR Operating System

Could Meta be reconsidering its plans to build an AR/VR operating system? New rumors swirling suggest that the firm may have dissolved its 300-strong team working on the project.

The Information reports that employees in the team will be split, with some joining the company’s AR glasses department, Quest headsets unit, or an “XR Tech” team researching eye tracking, hand tracking, and machine perception.

Engadget notes whispers from earlier in the year that discussed Meta stopping work on its own system, instead chooing  to make use of Android’s VROS platform, as seen in Quest 2.

Though at the time, Meta insisted it was “not halting or scaling back” its operating system development.

Now, while a Meta spokesperson hasn’t confirmed halting the project, they did confirm the disbanding of the unit. 

The spokesperson told The Information it would be placing engineers “directly” into its AR and VR teams, and that the company was still working on “highly specialized systems.”

“We are always evolving our team structures to help us bring great productions to market quickly,” Meta told Engadget.

“By embedding more OS engineers directly into our AR and VR teams, we can speed up the development of solutions that are hyper-tuned for each product line.”

[via The Information and Engadget, cover image via Scaliger | Dreamstime.com]