By Hartley Charlton, MacRumors
Meta has stopped developing its scratch-built operating system for augmented-reality (AR) and virtual-reality (VR) devices, according to The Information.
In a paywalled report published Wednesday, The Information claims that Meta stopped the development of its operating system designed for Oculus virtual-reality devices and the company’s upcoming augmented-reality glasses in November 2021, citing people familiar with the matter. Work on the operating system had reportedly been underway since 2017 and involved more than 300 Meta employees.
Existing Oculus devices, such as the Quest 2, run a modified version of Android called VROS, but Meta was designing a new OS from scratch to support its ambitions in the AR and VR space, a project known internally as “XROS.” It is unclear why the project was abandoned, but the company could still revive aspects of the OS at a later date.
Going forward, Meta will focus on modifying an open-source version of Android for AR and VR use, rather than using its own in-house OS. The move is expected to save the company money and engineering resources, but ties Meta’s AR and VR aspirations closely to Google in the long term.
The decision appears to be a considerable setback for Meta’s long-term goal to be more independent and develop its own hardware.
