Actuality Labs, Meta’s XR division fashioned in 2020, is now being reorganized into two distinct teams, ‘Wearables’ and ‘Metaverse’, which reportedly comes alongside a “comparatively small” variety of layoffs.
As reported by The Verge’s Alex Heath, Meta CTO and head of Actuality Labs Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth introduced the reorg in an inner memo to staff, stating that every one groups in Actuality Labs are being merged into both a central ‘Metaverse’ group, chargeable for Quest, and a brand new ‘Wearables’ group to devoted to different {hardware}, together with its Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses.
Within the memo, which is on the market through Heath’s Command Line newsletter, Bosworth says the corporate’s smartglasses have been “a a lot greater success than we anticipated,” spurring the XR division to place extra deal with the product.
“We now have the main AI machine available on the market proper now, and we’re doubling down on discovering a powerful product market match for wearable Meta AI, constructing a enterprise round it, and increasing the viewers,” Bosworth’s memo reads. “Our north star to overlay digital content material seamlessly onto the bodily world stays the identical, however the steps on that path simply bought much more thrilling.”
Notably, Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses don’t embody shows of any sort, AR or in any other case, as an alternative providing enter via voice assistant and contact on the glasses’ struts for issues like taking footage, movies, and listening to music. In late 2023, Meta additionally added AI-powered object recognition.
As for its Quest-related efforts, Bosworth says the corporate continues to be “deeply dedicated to investing in Horizon because the core basis of our social, spatial Horizon OS, and high-quality experiences for each combined actuality and cell.”
Meta introduced in April it can quickly license its Horizon OS (ex-Quest OS) to 3rd events for the primary time, together with ASUS, Lenovo and Xbox. This comes half and parcel with it Horizon Retailer (ex-Quest Retailer) content material library—seen as a bid to develop into a extra prolific different to Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional.
“The org chart doesn’t primarily decide whether or not we succeed or fail, our execution does,” Bosworth stated within the memo. “However by setting it up this fashion I hope we cut back overhead and permit individuals throughout groups to return collectively and execute with a extra unified view of who our clients are and the way we are able to finest serve them.”
Meta declined to touch upon the precise variety of Actuality Labs layoffs, nevertheless Heath maintains “it’s a comparatively small quantity and centered on groups in Actuality Labs the place management roles at the moment are redundant because of this new construction.”