Meta has reportedly disbanded the team that developed operating systems for the company's virtual reality and augmented reality devices, and some engineers have been transferred to the AR Glasses and Oculus Headset teams.
It is reported that Meta's team developing operating systems for virtual reality and augmented reality devices has about 300 people. It has been previously reported that Meta has stopped developing a customized operating system for quasi-reality and augmented reality devices, but Meta has responded that it does not plan to stop developing operating systems for VR/AR devices. But with the new material exposed, Meta's plan to create a unified custom operating system for its own VR/AR platform is obviously in trouble.
Meta spokesperson Sheeva Slovan said Meta will arrange for more OS engineers to embed its AR and VR teams to accelerate the development of overshoot solutions for each product line. This shows that Meta's current strategy is to prioritize each team to customize the operating system for their own project, rather than developing a unified new software platform with one team.
Some of the XROS team's engineers were reportedly transferred to teams working on AR glasses, Quest VR headsets, and other XR technologies. The teams are involved in projects that use computer vision technology to develop hand and eye tracking, respectively, but it's unclear where each member of the XROS team ends up.
This team realignment is also due to the fact that Meta is changing its overall image recently, and the company has changed its name to focus on the "meta-universe" business and plans to develop a virtual world involving a large number of virtual reality and augmented reality products. Meta also recently tweaked its corporate culture, telling employees that they should "move quickly together" and "focus on the long-term impact."
Meta's current operating system for quest standalone VR headsets is based on the open source core of Google Android, and it's unclear what the upcoming virtual reality headset Project Cambria will look like in the future, but given the tweaks being made by the XROS team, it seems unlikely that the new operating system will be released with Meta's new generation of virtual reality headsets.