Meta Reality Labs has been restructured, Business Insider reports, moving Horizon OS out of “Metaverse” and into its own top-level group.
Previously, the top-level groups within Meta’s Reality Labs division were “Metaverse” and “Wearables”.
Quest headsets, their Horizon OS platform, and first party software like Horizon Worlds were all under the Metaverse group. while Wearables handles the Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses, research and development of true AR glasses, and the Meta Neural Band.
Business Insider’s report suggests that Horizon OS has now been moved out of Metaverse into its own top-level group,
Vishal Shah, who led the Metaverse group, has moved to a new role at Meta Superintelligence Labs, the company’s AI division.
The Horizon OS group will continue to be led by Ryan Cairns, who succeeded Mark Rabkin earlier this year.
The report also includes three internal Meta memos, including one from CTO Andrew Bosworth to Reality Labs.
“The priority of the metaverse work remains unchanged, and it continues to be a companywide priority,” Bosworth said in his memo. “We’ve proved our thesis to the industry, and we continue to see competitors enter this space to try and catch up to us, so we need to continue to press our hard-earned advantage.”
Here’s Bosworth’s full memo, via Business Insider:
An update to Metaverse’s structure
I hope you’ve had time to read Vishal’s update about him taking on a new role in MSL leading product and cross-company integrations on the Products and Applied Research Team. I’m pleased that he will oversee the integration of personal superintelligence with FoA and RL’s portfolio. I’m confident that his deep expertise and experience with RL will accelerate our work.It is thanks to Vishal’s leadership for the last four years that we find ourselves well-equipped 1 deliver on our vision and strategy. We already have the right leadership and team in place.
Gabriel Aul will step in to lead the Metaverse PG. Metaverse will continue to focus on creating high-quality experiences for both VR and mobile. Jason Rubin, Samantha Ryan, and Thamara Sekhar will move to report to Gabe. We will also welcome a new leader, Saxs Person, to lead the Horizon Experiences team under Gabe.
Ryan Cairns will continue to lead Horizon OS which will become an org-level PG, and he’ll report directly to me. The Horizon OS charter and reporting structure remain unchanged. They will continue to focus on building quality hardware and software for the metaverse, especially ahead of our big launches and exciting VR roadmap. Metaverse and Horizon OS will continue to work closely together to ensure an integrated product experience across our devices and platforms. Gabe’s and Ryan’s posts will have more on this, and you can ask me more questions during Tuesdays with Boz tomorrow.The priority of the metaverse work remains unchanged and it continues to be a companywide priority. We’ve proved our thesis to the industry and we continue to see competitors enter this space to try and catch up to us, so we need to continue to press our hard-earned advantage.
VR is evolving beyond its roots in gaming to become a broader platform for entertainment, productivity, and connection as we deepen our Al and general compute capabilities. Mobile is starting to attract young social gamers at a greater scale and our Al creation tools are accelerating world-building to create the flywheel. We have the right team and strategy in place and now we need to focus on execution.
David Heaney
Interestingly, the separation of Horizon OS from “Metaverse” is somewhat mirrored in v83 PTC, which moves worlds out of your App Library into their own separate tab.
The move could reflect Meta’s intention to fully compete with Google’s Android XR, which just launched in Samsung Galaxy XR and is set to arrive on more headsets next year.
