Meta this week announced some big news when it comes to its mixed reality ecosystem. The company confirmed that it is opening up the operating system for Meta Quest devices, known as Horizon OS, to third-party hardware manufacturers. This will allow devices other than those designed by Meta to run the same system, apps, and games.
“Meta Horizon OS combines the core technologies powering today’s mixed reality experiences with a suite of features that put social presence at the center of the platform,” the company said in a blog post. The company highlights some of the technologies already built into its Horizon OS, such as eye, face, hand, and body tracking, as well as high-resolution passthrough.
A third-party manufacturer building a new mixed reality headset can adopt Horizon OS with all these technologies instead of having to create a new operating system from scratch. In addition, Meta’s idea is to make it easier for the majority of XR headsets on the market to run on the same platform, so that they can have the same apps and games.
This could end up benefiting both Meta, third-party hardware makers, and developers, as the Horizon OS user base will grow significantly, meaning that apps will reach more people. In other words, Meta wants to turn Horizon OS into the Android of mixed reality headsets.
The news comes as Apple has been struggling with the visionOS App Store, which lacks many popular apps available on other platforms. Part of this is due to Apple Vision Pro being too expensive and not considered a success, so most developers are still waiting to give the platform a chance.
Of course, only time will tell whether Meta will succeed with its strategy, but it is definitely ambitious and sounds promising for pushing XR headsets forward.
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