Meta makes the Meta Quest OS available to other hardware manufacturers. The first partners are Asus, Lenovo and Xbox.
Meta Quest's OS is coming to new headsets from other hardware makers, Meta announced on the Meta Quest blog:
"We’re opening up the operating system powering our Meta Quest devices to third-party hardware makers, giving more choice to consumers and a larger ecosystem for developers to build for. We’re working with leading global technology companies to bring this new ecosystem to life and making it even easier for developers to build apps and reach their audiences on the platform."
The operating system has been given a name and is now called Meta Horizon OS. With this rebranding, Meta doubles down on its proto-Metaverse.
"The Horizon social layer currently powering Meta Quest devices will extend across this new ecosystem. It enables people’s identities, avatars, and friend groups to move with them across virtual spaces and lets developers integrate rich social features into their apps. And because this social layer is made to bridge multiple platforms, people can spend time together in virtual worlds that exist across mixed reality, mobile, and desktop devices."
These are the first hardware partners
Meta announced three hardware partners who are developing headsets based on the Meta Horizon OS:
- Asus's Republic of Gamers is working on a "performance gaming headset". The company promises "high-performance hardware" and a "gaming headset of the next generation."
- Lenovo is working on a mixed reality device for productivity, learning, and entertainment. Lenovo cites "virtual screens, remote presence, content consumption, and immersive training" as potential applications for the hardware.
- Meta and Xbox are also working on a limited edition Meta Quest inspired by Xbox.
"As we’ve seen with the PC and smartphone industries, consumers are best served by a broad hardware ecosystem producing both general-purpose computing devices and more specialized products, all running on a common platform," Meta writes.
More rebranding and lower store barriers
With this announcement, Meta is renaming the Meta Quest Store and the Meta Quest mobile app:
- The Meta Quest Store is now called the Meta Horizon Store.
- The mobile app previously called Meta Quest is now called Meta Horizon. All devices running the Meta Horizon OS will use the same mobile app.
Meta also announces that it is beginning to break down the barriers between the Meta Horizon Store and the App Lab. "App Lab titles will soon be featured in a dedicated section of the Store on all our devices, making them more discoverable to larger audiences," Meta writes.
Finally, Meta announced that it is working on a new "spatial app framework" to help mobile app developers create mixed reality experiences. "Developers will be able to use the tools they’re already familiar with to bring their mobile apps to Meta Horizon OS or to create entirely new mixed reality apps."
