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Bigscreen Says Tariffs Will Not Increase Price of Beyond 2 PC VR Headset

From roadtovr

Wide sweeping tariffs levied by US President Donald Trump have led to uncertainty in just how the XR hardware industry will react. Now, Bigscreen says its recently announced Beyond 2 PC VR headset will not see a price increase as a result.

Bigscreen released a statement on X wherein the company maintains its Beyond 2 headset, priced at $1,019, isn’t getting a price bump despite increased tariffs applied to many goods manufactured in China.

According to Bigscreen, the company sources Beyond 2 components and assemblies from a variety of regions, including China, Japan and Europe. While “significant final assembly and testing” take place at its Los Angeles-based factory, many of the most expensive components and assemblies are made outside the US, which have “dramatically increased […] costs.”

“We expect to absorb all costs of the tariffs, trade war, and supply chain disruptions. We will not be increasing prices in any form for the foreseeable future,” Bigscreen says. “Customers will not pay any further shipping fees, tariffs, import duties, taxes, or VAT,” the company adds, noting that the final checkout amount includes no hidden fees.

Bigscreen Beyond 2 | Image courtesy Bigscreen

While the company says it “expected this may happen long before we announced Bigscreen Beyond 2,” the United States’ Harmonized Tariff Schedule is still evolving.

President Trump issued an executive order last week exempting many electronics, such as smartphones, monitors, and laptops, from the combined 145% reciprocal tariff rate.

Although not specifically named, VR headsets are expected benefit from the exemption, as UploadVR notes, however these devices will still be subject to a 20% tariff which was put in place in March 2025.

Prior to the exemption, Shanghai-based PC VR headset creator Pimax was the first to address tariffs with the announcement it would offload some of the pressure to its ‘Pimax Prime’ software subscription, keeping the final ‘all-in’ price of flagship Crystal Super at parity to the same ~$1,690 pre-tariff pricing, albeit with the inclusion of a $95 US-only surcharge.

Report: Apple CEO “cares about nothing else” Than Building Breakout AR Glasses Before Meta

From roadtovr

Apple is rumored to be working on two versions of Vision Pro, however a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman alleges the Cupertino tech giant is aiming to beat Meta to the punch with a pair of AR glasses.

Citing someone with knowledge of the matter, the report maintains Apple CEO Tim Cook has put development of AR glasses as a top priority, as the company plans to release such a device before Meta.

“Tim cares about nothing else,” the source told Bloomberg. “It’s the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint.”

Creating the sort of all-day AR glasses Apple is aiming for is still a multi-year challenge though. Packing in high-resolution displays, a powerful chip and a high-density (but very small) battery for all-day power represents a number of technical challenges. And creating such a device at a consumer price point is arguably the biggest of them all.

Meta’s Orion AR Glasses | Image courtesy Meta

While Apple is reticent to go on record, Meta has been fairly transparent with its XR roadmap. In late 2024, Meta unveiled its Orion AR glasses, which the company hopes will lead to the productization of such a device before 2030, and priced “at least in the space of phone, laptop territory.” For now, Orion costs Meta somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 per unit, largely owing to its custom silicon carbide waveguide optics.

And although Orion itself isn’t being productized right away, Meta is well on its way in the XR space, having not only produced multiple generations of Quest standalone headsets, but also its Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, which are laying foundation for its AR glasses of the near future.

The smart glasses, built in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, have been very successful too—so much so that Meta is reportedly preparing a next generation of the device which will include a monoscopic heads-up display. Granted, those aren’t augmented reality glasses, but rather still smart glasses. You can learn more about the differences between the two here.

Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

For now, Gurman maintains Apple is working on new versions of Apple Watch and AirPods which will be embedded with AI-enabled cameras, however the Fruit Company is still internally debating whether to counter Meta with a pair of smart glasses of their own.

According to Gurman, Apple has been developing such a device designed to work with Siri and Apple Visual Intelligence, although the company is unsure whether it will allow the glasses to actually capture media, owing to the company’s stance on user privacy.

This follows a wider leadership shakeup at Apple, reported by Bloomberg last month, which also saw Apple’s Vision Products Group (VPG) redistributed across the company.

Tasked with developing Vision Pro, VPG was initially created in 2023, which notably departed from its “functional” management structure introduced by Steve Jobs in the early ’90s. Essentially, this puts Vision Pro’s product development back in line with the company’s other hardware, including iPhone, iPad, etc.

Pimax Updates Prices in Response to US-China Trade War, Using Software Subscription to Absorb Costs

From roadtovr

China-based PC VR headset creator Pimax has issued a statement addressing the impact of the recent US–China trade war on its operations, particularly concerning its Crystal Super VR headset. It’s going to be slightly more expensive for US-based customers, but Pimax’s recent subscription-based payment structure seems to be offsetting much of the costs.

Announced back in April 2024, Crystal Super is the company’s next flagship PC VR headset, offering a base 57 PPD version with QLED panels that features a resolution of 3,840 x 3,840 pixels per eye and a 120-degree field-of-view (FOV). It’s still only available in pre-order, although shipping is expected to start soon.

At the time of this writing, the US has levied a 145% tariff on all goods manufactured in China. This is bad news for XR headset creators the world over, as China is by far the segment’s largest manufacturing hub. And Shanghai-based Pimax is seemingly the first of the bunch to announce price changes in response.

Pimax released a blogpost wherein it describes just what’s happening to US-based customers in relation to new tariffs. And it’s not as bad as you’d think.

The company says all US orders of Crystal Super placed before February 4th, 2025 will not include any extra tariff costs, however they may face a delay of about 20 days due to bulk shipments to US-based warehouses.

Pimax Crystal Super | Image courtesy Pimax

Orders placed between February 4th and April 10th will include a $75 ‘Regional Surcharge’ however, which Pimax says partially offsets increased shipping and logistics costs.

Moreover, starting April 10th, all new US orders will carry a $95 surcharge, with shipments expected to begin in June. Pimax says it’s also establishing a factory in Delaware to handle final assembly.

That said, the overall price of Crystal Super isn’t really changing. Pimax has now updated its pricing structure, and although it’s become less straight forward following the rollout of its subscription-based software pricing, it’s actually helping to offset tariff-related costs.

Now, the base price of Pimax Crystal Super has been lowered to $799, with the remaining $885 payable later through Pimax Play with Prime—a total cost $1,684 (excl. US-only $95 surcharge).

For everyone else around the globe, it’s essentially a nominal change. Previously, Crystal Super was priced at $999 with the remaining Prime subscription costing $696—total cost $1,695. You’ll now see that local pricing has be updated to reflect the lower upfront cost.

Notably, the company highlights that its 14-day trial period is still in place. For users outside the US, this could make Crystal Super slightly more attractive than before, as it requires less upfront money down—still refundable if you send it back before the trial period ends and you need Prime to continue using it.

That said, Pimax is in a unique position to rebalance its costs by leveraging its expensive, but now extremely useful subscription model. The same can’t be said for platform holders like Meta, which already subsidize hardware in effort to make software more attractive.

While Meta hasn’t announced any price hikes, the company has actually raised headsets prices in the past, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the company to temporarily raise the price of Quest 2 from $300 to $400 back in 2022. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.

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We’ll be following the effects of US-China trade war tariffs on XR hardware closely, so check back soon for more.

Researchers Catalog 170+ Text Input Techniques to Improve Typing in XR

From roadtovr

Efficient text entry without an actual keyboard remains an industry-wide challenge for unlocking productivity use-cases in XR headsets. Researchers have created a comprehensive catalog of existing text entry techniques to codify different methods and analyze their pros and cons. By making the catalog freely available, the researchers hope to give others a head start on creating new and improved techniques.

Guest Article by Max Di Luca

Massimiliano Di Luca leads the VR Lab at the University of Birmingham, UK, where he is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and in the School of Computer Science. He previously worked at Meta where he pioneered work on hand inputs and haptics for VR. His most recent collaboration with industry was recently recognized by the ACM SIGCHI 2025 awards for pioneering the interaction framework of Android XR through exemplary industry-academia collaboration, establishing foundational input methods and interaction guidelines for XR operating systems.

As immersive experiences become increasingly sophisticated, the challenge of efficient text entry remains a crucial barrier to seamless interaction in virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). From composing emails in virtual workspaces to logging-in and socializing in the metaverse, the ability to input text efficiently is essential for the usability of all applications in extended reality (XR).

To address this challenge, my team from the VR Lab at the University of Birmingham (UK) along with researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Arizona State University, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Northwestern University, and Google developed the XR TEXT Trove—a comprehensive research initiative cataloging over 170 text entry techniques tailored for XR. The TEXT Trove is a structured repository of text entry techniques and a series of filters that aim at selecting and highlighting the pros and cons of the breadth of text input methods developed for XR in both academia and industry.

These techniques are categorised using a range of 32 codes, including 13 interaction attributes such as Input Device, Body Part (for input), Concurrency, and Haptic Feedback Modality, as well as 14 performance metrics like Words Per Minute (WPM) and Total Error Rate (TER). All in all, the number of techniques and extensivity of the attributes provide a comprehensive overview of the state of XR text entry techniques.

Several key takeaways can be surmised from our research. First and foremost, text input performance is inherently limited by the number of inputting elements (whether fingers, controllers, or other character selectors). Only multi-finger typing can lead to performance comparable to touch-typing speed with a keyboard on regular PCs. As visualized in the plots below, each additional input element (or finger) adds about 5 WPM speed on top users.

Words per minute using multiple fingers, and different input devices. (each dot represents one technique analyzed in the study).

Our research also indicates that haptic feedback, the presence of external surfaces, and fingertip-only visualization are preferable ways to improve typing performance. For instance, typing on surfaces (instead of in mid-air) contributes to a more comfortable and potentially more efficient typing experience. External surfaces also minimize sustained muscle strain, making interactions more comfortable and reducing the onset of Gorilla Arm Syndrome.

Finally, and more interestingly, as of today, no alternative has fully replaced the keyboard format, probably because it still delivers the highest words-per-minute. Perhaps because it also requires high learning curves. We believe that the main path for faster typing in VR than PC might lay on the need to reduce travel distances on a multi-finger keyboard via Machine Learning and AI. XR needs its own ‘swipe typing’ moment, which made one-finger typing on smartphones much more efficient.

In that regard, the deep dive from the XR Text Trove represents a significant step towards a more comprehensive understanding of text input in virtual and augmented reality. By providing a structured and searchable database, we aimed to offer a resource for researchers and developers alike, paving the way for more efficient and user-friendly text entry solutions in the immersive future.

As we explain in our paper, this work has the potential to significantly benefit the XR community: “To support XR research and design in this area, we make the database and the associated tool available on the XR TEXT Trove website. The full paper will be presented at the prestigious ACM CHI conference next month in Yokohama, Japan.

Several authors in our team are co-creators of the Locomotion Vault, which similarly catalogs VR locomotion techniques in an effort to give researchers and designers a head-start on identifying and improving various methods.

VR Therapy for Seniors Rolls Out to 150 Living Communities Across the US

From roadtovr

Mynd Immersive, the immersive healthcare provider, announced its expanding its XR services to an additional 150 senior living communities across the United States.

The company says its recent milestone represents the largest deployment of XR therapies in senior care history, which it hopes will advance treatment options across physical, occupational, and speech therapy.

Founded in 2016 and operating the US, Canada and Australia, the Texas-based company has developed over 200 XR experiences which support HTC Vive Flow, the lightweight, compact VR headset released by HTC in 2021.

“We envisioned early on that Virtual Reality would profoundly enhance the quality of life and health outcomes for seniors,” said Chris Brickler, co-founder and CEO of Mynd Immersive. “Today, we’re seeing Mynd become an essential part of healthcare delivery, driving real-world gains in functional therapy, cognitive engagement, and staff training.”

Mynd Immersive has also partnered with Select Rehabilitation, the US-based contract therapy company, using the company’s platform to support cognitive, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of elders.

“Our partnership with Mynd empowers therapists to engage patients in meaningful, motivating experiences that support real clinical outcomes,” said Anna Wolfe, CEO at Select Rehabilitation. “With these tools, we are creating the therapy room of the future – today. Our therapists can now work on improving range of motion, strength building, gait training, spatial awareness, and Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) through immersive environments that make rehabilitation both effective and enjoyable.”

The company says it’s deploying the Mynd platform and training staff in 25 communities per-week on average now. Its 150-community expansion is set to bring XR therapy to more than 45,000 residents, which it notes is just the “beginning phase.”

Meta’s Next-gen Smart Glasses Reportedly Set to Include a Display & Wrist-worn XR Controller

From roadtovr

Meta is reportedly working on a version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses which will include a single display for viewing photos and apps. Now, according to a new Bloomberg report from Mark Gurman, the company is aiming to introduce it sometime later this year alongside its wrist-worn XR controller for hand-gesture input.

As per a previous Bloomberg report from January, the device is allegedly codenamed ‘Hypernova’. Citing Meta employees, the device could cost between $1,000 and $1,400, although the final price likely still hasn’t been decided.

The price increase over the company’s $300 Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, which don’t include displays of any sort, is reportedly driven by the inclusion of a single display visible in the lower-right quadrant of the right lens.

Unlike augmented reality glasses, which correctly place digital images in the user’s field-of-view, the device as described would be closer to Google Glass in function. Find out more about the differences between Smart Glasses and AR Glasses in our full explainer.

Bloomberg’s latest report now maintains Hypernova will include dedicated apps for taking pictures, viewing photos and accessing maps. This also includes notifications from phone apps, such as Messenger and WhatsApp, the report maintains.

Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

It’s said Hypenova will rely “heavily on the Meta View phone app,” and may not include its own on-board app store despite running a customized version of Android—suggesting it’s more akin to a smartphone peripheral and not a standalone platform as such.

It is however said to include many of the same features of Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, such as capturing images and video, accessing AI via built-in microphones and pairing with a phone for calls and music playback.

Additionally, it’s said Hypernova is getting a spec bump in the camera department. The latest version of Meta Ray-Ban comes with a 12-megapixel camera, similar to an iPhone 11 (2019) in quality. Instead, Hypernova is hoping to “rival the iPhone 13 from 2021,” according to people familiar with the matter.

Like the company’s display-less Ray-Ban Glasses, the report maintains users can control Hypernova using capacitive touch controls located on the temples, allowing to scroll through media.

Wrist-worn XR Controller seen with Orion | Image courtesy Meta

It seems however Meta is looking to finally productize its wrist-worn XR controller, which uses electromyography (EMG) sensors to detect things such pinching and hand rotation for UI selection. Hypernova is said to come bundled in the box with the wrist-worn controller, which we’ve also seen in action with the company’s internal Orion AR glasses.

Bloomberg maintains a second-gen ‘Hypernova 2’ is already in the works, which is said to include a binocular heads-up display system (again, smart glasses, not AR) with people familiar with the matter maintaining it’s currently planned for release in 2027.

Granted, anything could happen. Meta regularly shelves products late in development, such as its allegedly canceled variant the device without a camera—a move targeting lower costs and increased user privacy.

Still, Hypernova likely won’t be the next smart glasses device Meta releases. The report maintains Meta is finalizing ‘Supernova 2’, which function like Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, but houses inside a sportier Oakley design.

All of this is leading up to the release of Meta’s first true AR glasses. The company revealed its internal developer kit Orion in late 2024; Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth has said an AR device based on their work with Orion could come before 2030, priced “at least in the space of phone, laptop territory.”

Vision Pro Update Adds Companion App, Improved Guest Demos, and Apple Intelligence Features

From roadtovr

Apple announced today that the latest update to Vision Pro, visionOS 2.4 is now available to the public. VisionOS 2.4 finally adds Apple Intelligence features to the headset, while adding an iPhone companion app to make using and sharing the headset easier, along with a new Spatial Gallery to curate spatial content for watching on the headset.

While the first Apple Intelligence features reached iPhones, iPads, and Macs back in October, 2024, Vision Pro was curiously left out. Not only did the headset not get any of the Apple Intelligence features, at that point Apple hadn’t even confirmed that the headset ever would get them.

That finally changes today with VisionOS 2.4, now available to the public, which adds the same Apple Intelligence features that users can access on other devices. That includes writing tools, like the ability to proofread, rewrite, and summarize text, and image generation tools like Image Playground and Genmoji.

View post on imgur.com

Beyond just adding the usual slate of Apple Intelligence features, VisionOS 2.4 directly addresses commonly cited pain points of using the headset.

Spatial Gallery App

View post on imgur.com

Spatial Gallery is a new app for the headset which includes spatial (stereoscopic) content curated by Apple. Think of it as a premier gallery of spatial photos and videos. While the content will change over time, at launch Apple says users can “discover stories and experiences from iconic brands including Red Bull, Cirque du Soleil, and Porsche; go behind the scenes with Apple Originals like Severance, The Studio, and The Morning Show; and listen to conversations with top artists like Bad Bunny, Charli xcx, and Keith Urban.”

Vision Pro Companion App for iPhone

Image courtesy Apple

Similar to Apple Watch, Vision Pro is getting a companion app that runs on an iPhone or iPad. The app highlights new apps and entertainment content available on the headset, without users needing to put on the device just to browse for new content.

The app also serves as a simple place to read up on tips & tricks for getting the most out of the headset, as well as finding important support information like version and serial numbers.

Guest User Improvements

Vision Pro smartly launched with a dedicated ‘Guest Mode’ to make it easy for headset owners to show off the headset to friends and family by calibrating the headset specifically for the guest, and gives the owner control over what apps the guest can access.

View post on imgur.com

VisionOS 2.4, in conjunction with iOS 18.4, now makes the process smoother by allowing the headset owner to start a Guest Mode session from their iPhone (rather than needing to put on the headset first). It also allows the owner to remotely start View Mirroring so they can see what the guest user sees in the headset. Previously this could only be started from within the headset, which meant needing to guide the guest user by memory through the menus to find the right button.

New Apple Immersive Video Content

Image courtesy Apple

Alongside visionOS 2.4, Apple is highlighting upcoming releases for its first-party Apple Immersive Video content with VIP: Yankee Stadium on April 4th, featuring an “all-encompassing look at how elite athletes, die-hard fans, dedicated staff, and epic moments make the Bronx ballpark legendary.”

Later, on May 30th, Apple is releasing Bono: Stories of Surrender, a documentary about the frontman of the band U2. Uniquely, this will be released on Apple TV+ as viewable both as a standard flatscreen video and on Vision Pro as an Apple Immersive Vide

Infinite Reality Acquires Napster for $200M to Create Social Music Platform & Virtual Concerts

From roadtovr

Napster. Now there’s a name you haven’t heard in a few years… or more likely decades. Now, immersive web company Infinite Reality announced it’s acquired the brand for $207 million.

Having just closed a $3 billion investment in January, Immersive Reality says the Napster music streaming service will soon include a “social music platform” that will include branded 3D virtual spaces for virtual concerts and listening parties.

Additionally, the company says Napster will also sell both physical and virtual merchandise, exclusive digital content, and event tickets.

“By acquiring Napster, we’re paving a path to a brighter future for artists, fans, and the music industry at large,” said John Acunto, Infinite Reality co-Founder and CEO. “This strategic move aligns with Infinite Reality’s vision to lead an internet industry shift from a flat 2D clickable web to a 3D conversational one – giving all creators modern tools to better engage, monetize, and measure their audiences.”

CEO Jon Vlassopulos, formerly of Roblox, will continue leading Napster, noting he envisions a next-generation platform where fans can interact with artists in 3D virtual spaces, making music consumption more social and immersive.

Founded in 2019, Infinite Reality’s flagship product is iR Studio, an engine for building immersive websites, replete with social virtual environments and avatars. iR Studio sites support WebXR by default, meaning any XR headset that supports WebXR can access it directly through a web browser.

While the company hasn’t said as much, we’d expect Immersive Reality to leverage iR Studio in future Napster virtual concerts, which would ostensibly include support for Quest and PC VR headsets.

This isn’t the first time the Napster brand has changed hands since its 2002 bankruptcy, which was due to its platform allowing for unlicensed P2P sharing of music, attracting the ire of rock band Metallica. Over the years, the company has been acquired by a laundry list of companies that hoped to leverage the brand’s wide appeal, most recently turning the one-time music sharing platform into a subscriber-based music streaming platform.

Interestingly, Immersive Reality also isn’t the first XR-focused company to purchase Napster either. In August 2020, London-based virtual concert company MelodyVR acquired Napster for $70 million, which hoped to bring immersive video concerts to VR headset users. Prior to the Immersive Reality acquisition, Napster’s most recent owner was blockchain company Algorand, which hoped to decentralize music.

Smartphone Giant Vivo Announces ‘Vision’ MR Headset, Copying Apple’s Name & Design

From roadtovr

Another Vision Pro knock-off is coming to town, and this time it even has the ‘Vision’ name.

While not a household name, China’s Vivo is known for its sensible, mid-range smartphones, regularly ranking it in the top five smartphone creators by market share.

Now, at the Boao Forum for Asia in China’s Hainan Province today, the company showed off its first entry into the XR segment: Vivo Vision.

In a press statement, Vivo says the move comes as a broader push to pursue both robotics and XR devices, referring to Vivo Vision as “a significant milestone in vivo’s exploration of mixed reality technology.”

Image courtesy GSM Arena

While Vivo Vision is expected to be officially unveiled in mid-2025, specifics are still thin on the ground, with notable question marks surrounding the MR headsets specs, operating system, release date, global availability, price—pretty much everything besides the device’s externals.

A display model was present at Vivo’s booth at Boao Forum for Asia however, revealing the company is taking more than a few design cues from Apple Vision Pro, including its unique headstrap design, digital crown button, and magnetically-tethered external battery.

Notably, Vivo’s fleet of smartphones run modified versions of Android, with Funtouch OS used as its global-facing OS, and Origin OS used for those shipped in China.

As Vivo’s first XR device, it’s possible the company may attempt the same feat with Google’s upcoming Android XR OS, which is being launched with Samsung’s upcoming mixed reality, ‘Project Moohan’, which is said to release sometime this year, although that’s pure speculation for now.

This marks a growing trend of look-alike Vision Pros arriving from Chinese manufacturers, with the first notable arriving from Play for Dream; its MR headset not only stole the show at CES 2025 earlier this year, but also garnered high praise from former Quest engineer Amanda Watson, who called it “absolutely the best all around HMD demo I saw on the floor today.”

Quest Update Reveals More Vision Pro Features Are Coming, Including FaceTime-Style Selfie Cam

From roadtovr

Meta’s upcoming Horizon OS release is bringing a few more of Vision Pro’s most useful features to Quest, including a video chatting selfie cam for avatars and possibly the ability to share windows with other users when in its Horizon Home social space.

Discovered by serial dataminer ‘Luna’, a beta version of Horizon OS v76 is packing in a few new features, including the very Facetime-inspired avatar selfie cam which can be used in video chatting apps.

Quest’s v76 update is currently available on the Public Test Channel (PTC), although Luna went a bit further to implement the avatar selfie cam in a sideloaded version of Discord.

Backgrounds currently aren’t available, Luna notes, however they’re said to include multiple default options, such as Abstract, Beach, Greenhouse, Home Office, Light, Loft, and Office.

Luna also uncovered a hidden tutorial for an upcoming ‘Navigator’ system user interface overhaul on Horizon OS. Teased at Meta Connect 2024 in September, the new UI system restyles the current dock-based UI to a more traditional launcher overlay—putting it more in line with the sort of icon-based app selection you see in Vision Pro and mobile devices today.

While the tutorial was discovered in v76 PTC, Luna suspects the Navigator feature will arrive in v77 or beyond, possibly as an Experimental feature.

Furthermore, Luna’s datamining revealed that strings in the v76 PTC of Horizon OS “suggest that Meta is working on the ability to share windows with other users in Horizon Home (and possibly Worlds),” which they maintain “will likely work similarly to SharePlay on visionOS.”

The string in question states it “[s]hares a panel so that other users in your world can see it”.

Granted, Quest users have been asking for these features since well before Vision Pro was released, although it was Apple’s $3,500 mixed reality standalone that has ultimately been the key driver in the company’s quest to further mold the console-style Quest into a general computing device.

To boot, since Vision Pro’s launch in early 2024, Meta has released a number of features in effort to bring Quest’s software closer to parity with visionOS, including spatial video playback, pinch-style gesture controls, and better passthrough on Quest 3.

Still missing in action though is Meta’s long-promised photorealistic Codec Avatars though, which the company first teased in 2019.

Codec Avatars | image courtesy Meta

Like Vision Pro’s photorealistic avatars, Meta researchers demonstrated that Codec Avatars could use smartphones to scan and recreate a user’s face—much like Vision Pro does today.

The key limiter though is Quest 3’s lack of eye or facial tracking, which could mean Meta is waiting to release Codec Avatars with its next high-end headset—the totally hypothetically and still unconfirmed Quest Pro 2. And if we were betting, probably some more Vision Pro-inspired features too.