Android XR may not have to worry about pressure from Meta and Horizon OS, after all

It feels like mobile tech is at an inflection point right now when it comes to all things extended reality (XR). While the idea behind glasses-based augmented reality and mixed reality has been around for years, it’s only recently that the hardware and software powering these solutions have matured to the point where all this actually feels like it might just be commercially viable. As we look forward to what’s next from Google and Android XR, it sounds like Meta’s own XR plans are going a bit sideways.

Any time we push into a new market segment like this, everyone’s going to be curious to see which platform ends up emerging as the favorite, winning support from consumers and developers alike. Right now, we’ve already got Apple with its visionOS and Google with Android XR. There’s also Meta’s Horizon OS (based on Android) for its Meta Quest headsets — but now a new report from Road to VR suggests that Meta’s broader ambitions for Horizon as a platform are being seriously scaled back.

Let’s take a second and flash back to spring of 2024. While earlier rumors suggested that Meta might be working on a high-end XR headset like the Vision Pro or Galaxy XR, in April of that year we heard that Meta had put those plans on ice. And instead, the company introduced this Horizon OS branding for its platform and announced ASUS and Lenovo as hardware partners.

Those plans have since unraveled. Meta confirms that the company has “paused the [third-party Horizon OS hardware] program to focus on building the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market.” Hot on the heels of a Business Insider report claiming that Meta’s own mixed-reality headset has been pushed back to 2027, it feels like we could be looking at a major shift in priorities for Meta and its approach to XR.

While Meta’s found some success in the VR gaming space, no longer working with partners like ASUS and Lenovo has us thinking that it’s essentially doubling down on that segment — perhaps at the expense of AR solutions. If Android XR succeeds at addressing that market segment, instead, that could prove to be a major missed opportunity for Meta.