Meta teases ‘future headsets’ despite VR issues, and AI development from science fiction
- Meta teased the “headset of the future” in its recent investor call
- Zuckerberg also suggested that Meta wants to use AI to let you jump into videos
- No specific plans or timelines have been given
Based on recent leaks many have been wondering if this was the beginning of the end for Meta’s VR plans, but the company has also confirmed that it is still working on new technologies in the space – including new hardware and AI integration that could be truly sci-fi.
Speaking to investors following its latest quarterly earnings report, CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t talk much about VR, perhaps surprisingly, instead focusing on smart glasses where sales “tripled” last year.
At first it’s not a good sign for the future of VR. However, Meta CFO Suan Li changed our hopes when he answered a question from Benjamin Black of Deutsche Bank at Reality Labs.
He said, “We continue to be optimistic about the future of VR,” adding, “We are investing more and more – moving forward, rather, in building headphones for the future.” Saying this before putting our VR hopes down a bit by explaining what we already knew, that “consumer adoption of VR has generally been on a slower growth trajectory than wearables, and we’re regrouping our Reality Labs portfolio to reflect this.”
No more details than that were revealed about these “future headsets”, but the leak points to two devices that will probably live in 2026 and/or 2027.
The other could be the ‘Quest 4’ which is a big but modest improvement on its predecessor, and it also comes with a high-end and a low-end model as we saw with the Quest 3 and Quest 3S.
Then there’s a headset I named Quest Pro 2. It’s designed to be ultra-lightweight – with a design more like glasses or glasses than an earphone – thanks to the battery and computing power that’s transferred to the puck you carry in your pocket. There can also be more focus on production instead of games.
The development of AI
Another big development we can see in VR is the emphasis on AI. Of course this is to be expected in the age of AI, but Zuckerberg highlighted the case for using sci-fi in the future during the presentation: “Of course there is a version of the future where any video you see, you would like to click and jump to.”
Now, the way Zuckerberg describes this future, it’s certainly not something we’ll see next week or maybe in the next few years, but this could be a further development of the AI-led tools we’re already seeing. which can convert 2D scenes into stereoscopic 3D.
Beyond VR, Zuckerberg’s comments also suggest that it may be a tool we see coming to social media — which is now the main focus of the Horizon metaverse. Being able to generate worlds with images – in our digital memories – can be a powerful tool for creating these types of immersive social experiences across platforms, and can be the differentiating factor that Meta needs as its AI models lag behind competitors like ChatGPT, Gemini and others.
These vague hardware references and AI promises don’t give us a solid timeline for when Meta’s next VR upgrade will drop, but at least it teases a next step that feels pretty sad to us VR fans.
The question remains, however, if the Meta can return some favors, or if upcoming devices like the Steam Frame will eat the Meta’s lunch, as I suspect will happen.
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