This operating system is called Meta Horizon OS, which combines augmented reality features with other features focused on social presence. The operating system supports tracking of eyes, face, hands, and body for more natural interaction and social presence. It allows people to move their identities, avatars, and friend groups across different virtual spaces and devices, meaning that people can exist in a virtual world that spans across mixed reality, mobile, and desktop devices.
In addition, it also supports more augmented reality-oriented features aimed at merging the digital and physical worlds, such as high-resolution pass-through, scene understanding, and spatial anchors.
"Developers and creators can leverage all these technologies using our custom frameworks and tools built for creating mixed reality experiences, and reach their communities and grow their businesses through the content discovery and monetization platform built into the operating system."
Meta believes that its Horizon OS is a key factor in the existence of various professional devices that better cater to users' diverse interests in categories such as gaming, entertainment, fitness, productivity, and social presence. Meta states that some companies have already built new devices based on Horizon OS, such as ASUS' Republic of Gamers, Lenovo, and Xbox.
At the same time, Meta is also making it easier for developers to publish software on the platform by including App Lab application titles in the official Meta Store. App Lab was initially created to allow developers to safely distribute applications directly to consumers without store approval or sideloading.
"Applications on App Lab will soon be showcased in a dedicated section of our store on all our devices, making them discoverable to a wider audience. Some of the most popular applications on the store today, such as Gorilla Tag and Gym Class, started from App Lab."
In terms of tools, Meta is previewing a new spatial application framework to help developers create mixed reality experiences.
On the hardware front, Horizon OS is closely tied to the Snapdragon processor that powers Meta Quest devices, and companies building products using it are expected to use the same hardware and software stack as Meta.
John Carmack commented on Meta's statement, sharing his thoughts on what the statement might mean:
"What it might be doing is being able to build various high-end 'boutique' headsets, like you use Varjo, Pimax, and Bigscreen on SteamVR. Making breakthroughs in resolution, field of view, and comfort.... You can add crazy cooling systems and overclock everything. All of that will be fully compatible with the applications, but at a higher price. That's great!"
However, he insists that "the development of virtual reality is more limited on the software side than on the hardware side," and Meta's engineers need to put in effort to prepare the system and maintain good communication with partners, which could slow down the further development of the system.
Other commentators also added to Carmack's point, suggesting that Meta's statement could lead to creating new spaces for virtual reality devices, similar to the achievements made by Google with the launch of the Android platform. And when it comes to Meta, it's hard not to discuss privacy issues, especially regarding the collection of user eye-tracking data.
