[lesuorac]

Why?

FaceBook largely requires an Apple iPhone, Apple computer, "Microsoft" computer, "Google" phone, or a "Google" computer to use it. At any point one of those companies could cut FaceBook off (ex. [1]).

The Metaverse was a long term goal to get people onto a device (Occulus) that Meta controlled. While I think an AR device is much more useful than VR; I'm not convinced that it's a mistake for Meta to peruse not being beholden to other platforms.

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/01/facebook-and-google-...

[everforward]

I think this is sane washing their idea in the modern context of it having failed. I think at the time, they thought VR would be the next big thing and wanted to become the dominant player via first mover advantage.

The headsets don’t really make sense to me in the way you’re describing. Phones are omnipresent because it’s a thing you always just have on you. Headsets are large enough that it’s a conscious choice to bring it; they’re closer to a laptop than a phone.

Also, the web interface is like right there staring at them. Any device with a browser can access Facebook like that. Google/Apple/Microsoft can’t mess with that much without causing a huge scene and probably massive antitrust backlash.

[Aerroon]

I think headsets might work, but I think Meta trying to use their first mover advantage so hard so early backfired. Oculus, as a device, became less desirable after it required Facebook integration.

It's kind of like Microsoft with copilot - the idea about having an AI assistant that can help you use the computer is great. But it can't be from Microsoft because people don't trust them with that.

[everforward]

Interaction feels like the issue with headsets. You either need a fair bit of space for gesture controls, or you have to talk to yourself for voice control.

I think VR has more niche uses than the craze implied. It’s got some cool games, virtual screens for a desktop could be cool someday, but I don’t see a near future where they replace phones.

[timacles]

People are discounting the fact the almost no one wants a contraption on their head for an extended period of time. It is a universal preference

Until VR is done via glasses or some wire you stick in your neck matrix style, it will never take off

[Aerroon]

People use helmets all the time for extended periods of time. I'm not sure that's such a deal breaker.

I don't want to wear glasses for extended periods of time either, but I've had to get used to them.

[everforward]

The risk/reward tradeoff of helmets is potentially dying, and we still had to make laws requiring people to wear them.

Glasses also have a pretty compelling reason to wear them.

I don't think VR has as compelling of a reason, at least so far. Even if it does, you need people to get far enough in to see that reason which is a hurdle when it involves a device they don't want to wear.

[willy_k]

It’s premature to say that the idea failed; The flashy controversial “metaverse” angle where you can live your whole life on the Quest or whatever isn’t happening, but their investment into AR/VR has definitely started to show real payoff potential with their glasses.

They address the friction of use issue being discussed, they’re even more discrete and available than a phone. And they are getting a lot of general public recognition, albeit not for the best reasons (people discretely filming, for genuine social media reactions but also for other reasons..).

Their tech is improving at a decent pace and they’ve recently put out a product that is both ready for consumer (at least with select use cases) adoption, and actually reasonably available to the public.

[everforward]

I don’t mean that VR failed entirely, just that the metaverse as a concept is basically dead. VR will live on in the niches where it makes sense.

If you’re talking about the Meta Ray Ban glasses, I wouldn’t really call that a successor. There’s no AR or VR to them that I can tell; just glasses with speakers, a mic and a camera. It’s a neat product, but not a platform in the way VR was meant to be. They also have real competition. I do actually own a pair of the Bose headphone sunglasses, which are practically the same product without a camera (which I’m sure they could add if they wanted). Unless people suddenly care about the Meta AI integration, and again; Bose or someone else could add a phone companion app.

[willy_k]

I was taking your comment to mean that the metaverse movement (as in the rebranding to Meta etc., rather than the specific concept itself) is dead, which apparently you did not mean so that’s on me.

They have two current Meta Ray Ban options, the “Gen 2” and the “Display”, the latter of which does have an AR component.

[mrandish]

> the web interface is like right there staring at them.

True but the an app gives Facebook much more user data for targeting which dramatically increases revenue per ad. Persistent user data that's largely unconstrained by privacy safeguards is the holy grail. The mobile browsers are also controlled by Apple and Google, so despite the web being 'open', when one of them makes even minor changes to increase browser privacy defaults, it can have major impact on Facebook's revenue.

[ynx]

As someone who was there: nope. This isn't sanewashing.

Apple was directly (and IMO arguably illegally) shutting down Facebook teams and products by playing app store chicken on refusing to allow Facebook to publish updates on a week-to-week basis. Literally would throw down and refuse unless some features were blocked. It came to a head where Zuck literally called Tim Cook during a keynote to push it through.

They also literally had reverse-engineering teams cracking open the Facebook app on a regular basis, which we discovered because of some internal methods we figured out how to invoke with some clever indirection. There was a chicken-and-egg problem and they eventually developed facilities to automatically instrument private method invocations to comprehensively defeat clever static analysis circumvention workarounds.

Also, VR hasn't failed, but it's gone silent and coasted when investing in VR growth took the backseat to investing AI. They made a couple of bad bets in VR but a lot of good ones so it was warranted, but not exactly a failure.

[everforward]

> we discovered because of some internal methods we figured out how to invoke with some clever indirection.

Apple trying to block Facebook is different than Apple trying to prevent Facebook from violating App Store standards. There was a time where the Facebook app was practically malware with all the tricks it tried to pull to Hoover up data.

I don’t know in what world I would describe Metas VR as anything but a failure. There was a brief period where I knew a few people with Quests. Most used them for the novelty and dropped them, a few played games on them, and I don’t know anyone that still owns one. I’m deep in the gaming community and haven’t heard anyone mention a Quest in years. Steam VR is almost equally quiet other than occasional nostalgia.

[etempleton]

Naming your company off a product that doesn't really exist yet and then ultimately fails is a pretty crazy and stupid thing to do. A bit cart before horse.

[FartyMcFarter]

I think they were trying to disassociate themselves from the PR disasters Facebook was facing back then (privacy related IIRC).

[etempleton]

Oh, I know, but they could have named themselves anything. They believed in the metaverse, They thought it was the next big thing. The same way Zuckerburg thought voice assistants, and AI will be a thing.

[latexr]

> I'm not convinced that it's a mistake for Meta to peruse not being beholden to other platforms.

Devoid of other context, it’s hard to disagree. But your parent comment only asserted that the metaverse specifically as proposed by Facebook was an obviously stupid idea.

[adrr]

For the money spent(over $80b), they could have launched a phone or a car. Now their pivot is to smart glasses which require a phone so once again they are beholden to phone manufacturers.

[IshKebab]

Because it's been very clear for a long time that the vast majority of people do not want to play VR Second Life.

[snek_case]

Meta's vision was worse than that. They were trying to hype doing work meetings in VR. There's a case to be made that VR games and VR universes can be fun... But work meetings?

[mschuster91]

> There's a case to be made that VR games and VR universes can be fun... But work meetings?

If it's actual holograms like in Star Wars? Sure, why not. Get the visual and body language cues of the rest of the room but no one has to physically congregate at a location.

But pixelated, cartoon avatars? Yeah, wtf.

[ethbr1]

Mark Zuckerberg using his company to build things he's the primary user for?

[jimbokun]

It worked when he wanted a system for ranking Harvard girls by appearance.

[JKCalhoun]

"I'm not convinced that it's a mistake for Meta to peruse not being beholden to other platforms."

But thinking AR/VR was the way to go is a failure to read the room. If anything the up and coming generations seem to be recoiling from tech.

Regardless, as Microsoft found, it's too late for a 3rd platform and it seems somehow that there's only room in the world for two.

(Meta would have done better to start up a line of caffeinated sugar drinks.)

[Dylan16807]

> At any point one of those companies could cut FaceBook off (ex. [1]).

Some of those companies can cut off invasive apps.

There is no risk of facebook.com getting blocked. And absolutely nobody is going to prefer a headset over a website for doing facebook things.

[turtlesdown11]

so after $80 billion spent, they must have an ecosystem of hundreds of millions of users? Right?

Maybe they should have spent that on the facebookphone

[corford]

>Why?

Patrick Boyle did a nice video a few weeks back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BaSBjxNg-M

[PKop]

Because it's been a massively expensive failure. They can't just will their own platform into existence just because it would be good to have, consumers have a say and they've rejected it completely.

[aucisson_masque]

Good luck using an Oculus in your car or while waiting the bus.

If it was really their goal, they would have made an Android competitor. Maybe a fork like amazon did and sell phones that supported it.

Zuckerberg had one great idea (and then it wasn't really his idea) at the right time, since then he failed over and over at everything else. 'Internet for all', remember ?

I really wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt.

[lxxpxlxxxx]

Can anybody cut meta off? I don't think you could mass market a device with no access to FB, IG or WS.

Maybe a niche product could do it, but good luck selling a laptop that won't open FB

[goosejuice]

No? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47454647

[Dylan16807]

That's both niche and for kids too young to have a facebook account in the first place.

[goosejuice]

It is, but it's part of a larger trend of buying dumbphones amongst the younger generations.