Meta Pushes Back on AR Glasses Venture to 2027—To Focus on VR, Mixed-Reality

There is still an upcoming AR glasses coming from Meta, and an anonymous employee confirmed this on a recent report, detailing the company's plans to expand more of its wearable reality devices. However, the company is not putting massive urgency in developing the AR glasses that it plans to introduce to the public, with a possible 2027 release date.

Later this year, Meta is known to bring its latest Quest 3 device, and instead of solely focusing on VR, the device will be featuring a mixed-reality experience, on par with Apple's Vision Pro.

Meta Pushes Back AR Glasses Venture to 2027

Sources from Meta's Reality Labs division have confirmed that the company is delaying its development of the supposed augmented reality-focused glasses (AR glasses) to 2027. According to The Information's report, the confirmation also talked about Meta's latest acquisition of an AR display tech firm called Plessey which would also bring advanced microLED for its future development.

However, the AR glasses from Meta seem to have hit a snag, as these insiders claimed that there are several production issues and defects on the said microLED, and would opt for the traditional LCDs.

Still, there is an upcoming AR glasses from Meta to arrive by 2025, codenamed "Orion," but would only be available for a limited release, featuring the microLED. Moreover, the second-generation version of this, codenamed "Artemis," is coming by 2027 for mass production.

Quest 3 Mixed-Reality Headset is the Priority?

As per Android Central, Artemis would utilize a tech called LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) for its displays, despite being an older tech first introduced in the 1990s. It was not revealed why this next-gen device would not feature the same microLED as the Orion.

For now, Meta is well invested in the development of its AR/VR headset known as the Quest 3, with the company centering its efforts on its arrival by fall, as promised by the company.

Meta's Quest Development

The Quest wearables are some of the iconic reality devices present, and the company has mainly focused on virtual reality (VR) for the past few years already. One of the most iconic features here is that users may already update their favorite games or apps whenever they need to, and would no longer require having it updated while in use.

Despite the heavy VR focus with its previous devices like the Quest 2 and Quest Pro, Meta is looking to bring an entirely new experience with the Quest 3 device, now featuring AR/VR capabilities. The company announced this ahead of the Apple Vision Pro, and Meta would also be going ahead of Apple with its release coming in the fall.

The massive focus of Meta on its Quest devices is a significant push towards expanding more of the reality devices they bring, but not limited to VR and mixed-reality devices only. Meta is still game for pushing forth its AR glasses to the world, although a significant change on its timeline, as it gives way to the company's development of its present devices.