XROS

2022: Project Closure

At the end of February 2022, Meta disbanded a 300-person team that was developing an operating system for augmented reality and virtual reality headsets. The company transferred some engineers to teams working on augmented reality glasses and Oculus headsets.

According to The Information, back in 2017, Meta began work on a special XROS operating system for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) equipment, as well as other advanced reality (XR) technologies related to tracking hands and eyes using computer vision. This operating system was supposed to reduce the company's dependence on other software developers (software), namely Google and Apple, which repeatedly threatened the Meta business model. In June 2021, Mark Zuckerberg described the creation of an OS based on a microkernel that would give the company tight control over every level of its equipment, saying that the team was too far away in its initiative, and linked the existence of the OS to 2025.

Meta collapses failed OS project for VR devices

We are constantly developing the structure of our team to help us quickly bring great products to market. By deploying more OS engineers directly into our AR and VR teams, we can accelerate the development of solutions that are ideal for each product line. As we have said, there are several technical areas that we use to create these solutions, and we remain committed to creating highly specialized systems. We continue to invest and optimize to move quickly and achieve our goals, "said Meta spokeswoman Shiva Slovan.

This restructuring takes place at the end of February 2022, when Meta is working to change its image as a whole. The company outlined a focus on metaverse and plans to create a virtual world that largely includes VR and AR products.^[1]

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