In an interview with The Verge, Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth confirmed a number of projects previously subject to speculation, detailed the company’s strategic shift toward AI, and confirmed plans to deepen its partnership with Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica.

Meta reorganized Reality Labs earlier this year to better focus on wearables, such as Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and AI-driven wearable tech, like the newer version of its wrist-worn controller revealed last month alongside Meta’s Orion AR glasses prototype.

Meta’s Orion AR Glasses Prototype | Image courtesy Meta

To get there though, Bosworth outlined the company’s multi-phase process for product development. In a nutshell: a “pre-discovery” team prototypes novel concepts. Some ideas move to the “discovery” phase for feasibility and industrial design evaluation. Prototyping follows with more extensive executive involvement, and products that pass engineering validation may go to market.

In the interview, Bosworth confirmed a number of claims made in recent reports, including rumors that Meta is exploring earbuds with cameras, similar to what we’ve heard is currently going on at Apple, and a pair of mixed reality goggles which recently entered the discovery phase, described as “steampunk-like.”

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Although Bosworth didn’t confirm this, a previous report from The Information maintained those mixed reality goggles could arrive as soon as 2027—assuming they successfully pass both prototyping and engineering validation phases.

Bosworth also confirmed a previous report that Meta has canceled a high-end Quest headset, codenamed La Jolla, which was initially expected to become the Quest Pro 2. The cancellation of La Jolla was likely due to tepid consumer responses to high-priced headsets like the Quest Pro and Apple Vision Pro.

Meta Quest Pro | Image courtesy Meta

It also seems reports were correct surrounding Meta’s plans to take a noncontrolling stake in EssilorLuxottica, the company behind Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Meta is seeking volume while the eyewear giant seeks margins. “That’s the tension, and we found a good solution to it, so we’re pretty excited about it,” Bosworth told The Verge.

Meanwhile, Meta is increasingly focused on AI-powered devices, aiming not to be outpaced by competitors like Apple. To boot, Meta is now developing multiple products simultaneously, a marked shift from its early days.

“We definitely don’t want to be outflanked by someone who came up with some clever, integrated wearable that we hadn’t thought about,” Bosworth says. “If there’s a part of your body that could potentially host a wearable that could do AI, there’s a good chance we’ve had a team run that down.”

This comes as Meta has just released Quest 3S, its new $300 mixed reality headset that undoubtedly hopes to replicate Quest 2’s success by packing in Quest 3’s chipset and full-color mixed reality capabilities alongside last-gen displays.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • polysix

    META can FO. Sony is the only saviour of ACTUAL VR now.

    • Corey Reynolds

      That's going to be one disappointing 'salvation' I'm afraid.

    • NotMikeD

      Did you and I just somehow live through completely different versions of the past year and a half??

    • XRC

      What has Sony done to save VR?

      Produced an overpriced accessory that launched with limited software library and no backwards compatibility, quickly cancelled first party VR development

      after selling poorly then produced a PCVR adapter that doesn't support several key headset functions

      • Dave Man

        Uh, they could out-dump Meta if they had the balls to throw overboard a lot of useless features!

    • The hell you say!1! lol
      []^ )

    • sfmike

      It's obvious Sony has given up on VR as a non-moneymaker just as they did with 3D TVs and cameras. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/798c4751003ff738f674a23abba57c354430f05cc46064177c5152643d1f39f1.jpg

      • ViRGiN

        I'd say it's not exactly fair comparison – they brought out the tech, but movie and game makers weren't too keen to add simple stereoscopy. Movies has to be shot in 3D to look proper, but they pretty much stopped bothering after Avatar.

        • Matthew Bryson Sirbaugh

          I think it's fair in the sense that Sony faced an uphill battle with the 3D tech. Movie makers weren't taking advantage of it, but that's the chicken, and not the egg, imo. The egg was that it was way too expensive and it required glasses that were also weirdly expensive for basically plastic. If 3D televisions had been cheaper (meaning Sony continued to develop the tech or took a hit on hardware sales) then it would have been more widely adopted and studios would have fallen in line eventually with what people wanted.

          I think VR, specifically Meta, is an example of how to do it. They take hits on hardware for wide adoption, in hopes that it would lead to wide adoption, and it becomes more and more profitable by the year. Something like 40 million headsets in total have been sold, and the newest headset is expected to be their biggest seller yet.

          In the past, any studio that made a VR game was entering a high risk, low reward situation. Now, there's several studios making only VR titles that are thriving, and that because of what Meta did. Now they're able to get great IP, like Batman Arkham, Metro, Assassin's Creed, etc. Because the playerbase is there to buy it.

    • ViRGiN

      lmao you are still here everyday coming for VR news which is all about Meta rather than spending time in PSVR2?

  • rabs

    Their light "steampunk-like" headset sounds like first ShiftAll MeganeX to me. Hope they'll make it work.

    And that we can plug it into our own computers instead of their compute module, though it's very unlikely.

  • ViRGiN

    In other news, valve is working on an update for their 20 year old HL2.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    Well the formfactor of the Pro is pretty good as I understand, so why not use that formfactor for a mainstream consumer headset like the Quest 3?

  • Smokey_the_Bear

    The camera earbuds with AI sound promising, but would be better with just one earbud. But it might need 2 to (through software) stitch the 2 images together, to truly see everything in front of you.
    90% of the time that I'm wearing an earbud, it's 1 earbud. Many other people are the same way, especially in the construction industry.

    • Matthew Bryson Sirbaugh

      I agree. I think the glasses were actually perfect because they used bone conduction, which lets you use them without covering your ears. The sound bleed on the Meta Ray Bans is actually really good, at half volume someone sitting next to you couldn't hear what you're hearing. If the quality were slightly higher, they'd replace earbuds entirely for me, I think.