With Meta Connect 2024 just around the corner – September 25-26 – I’m sharing the five announcements I’d most like to see at the event, and why I think they’re likely (or, in the case of one entry, not) to happen.
Meta Connect is an annual event from Meta that focuses on the Reality Labs division. It unveils exciting new hardware that is coming our way soon, and gives a sneak peek at future hardware and software that we will see in the coming years.
This year’s event is likely to continue the trend of focusing on XR technology – a collective term for virtual, mixed, and augmented reality technologies – as well as ubiquitous AI, which in Meta’s case is inventively dubbed Meta AI. This list reflects those expectations, starting with an announcement that’s practically already been made.
Meta Reality Labs – Project Ventura/PantherMeta Quest 3S – Final Design pic.twitter.com/6Tc9ig2hJoAugust 11, 2024
It’s not so much “what I want to see” as “what we will definitely see, unless Meta pulls a big prank on us.” That’s because not only has the Meta Quest 3S been announced by third-party leakers sharing details about the project, but Meta itself has been leaking its existence via apps and accidentally teasing it in unrelated Threads videos from its CTO.
Based on everything we know, the Quest 3S will feature the Quest 3’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset, but a larger body and lower-spec displays, allowing it to command a lower price point – hopefully somewhere around the $299 / £299 / AU$479 mark of the Meta Quest 2.
This would be an ideal headset for anyone who doesn’t want to be left behind in VR software with Meta Quest 3 exclusives like Batman: Arkham Shadow on the way, but isn’t yet ready to shell out ($499.99 / £479.99 / AU$799.99) for a VR headset.
Obviously we’ll have to wait and see what exactly Meta announces at Connect, but I expect the Quest 3S to be the biggest and best reveal we get when it comes to making current-gen VR accessible again.
The Quest 3S might not be the only Horizon OS VR headset we see this September. Back in April, Meta announced that its operating system – Horizon OS – was coming to other headsets from Asus, Lenovo, and Xbox , and I think it’s about time we finally saw one of those headsets in action.
Horizon OS is the best standalone VR operating system I’ve tried. It’s clean, intuitive, feature-rich, and home to the best standalone VR and MR software catalog, thanks in part to some great exclusives. I was excited to see other headset makers get access to this OS and all its benefits, as it would allow their hardware to shine without being held back by relatively mediocre software.
Since the announcement, we haven’t heard anything. Hardware takes time to develop, but at Meta Connect 2024 I’d love to see a sizzle reel showing off these third-party headsets – or even one of them.
One factor that supports my prediction is Google’s XR platform. With Google’s XR efforts, which it co-developed with Samsung, set to be announced sometime this year, a reminder from Meta that Horizon OS is open to third-parties makes sense, lest Horizon OS get lost in the noise.
Meta, and the industry at large, has been steadily shifting its focus from VR headsets to MR headsets to AR glasses. The products teased for the coming decade are a new breed of streamlined XR wearables that focus on augmented reality.
We know Meta is working on something that combines AR and AI, Mark Zuckerberg has already hinted as much , but we’ve yet to get a good look at what these glasses might look like – that is, the stylish non-AR smart glasses Meta has developed in collaboration with Ray-Ban aside.
A launch this year or even next year seems unlikely. I expect we’ll probably get a sneak peek at a prototype AR glasses model at best. Still, I’d love to finally see what Meta has been working on in AR, even at this stage of development.
Since Meta Connect likes to use it to showcase interesting projects that are still a few years (or longer) away, I think an AR glasses segment is more than feasible for Meta Connect 2024.
Enough about hardware, let’s talk software.
It’s the buzzword of 2024 and I’m sure Meta AI will spend a lot of time on it. However, I’m especially interested in seeing two announcements.
The first is a broader rollout. Officially, Meta AI on Ray-Ban smart glasses and the Meta Quest 3 is only available in the US and Canada. Some users (including me) have had access to it anyway – in my case, I have Meta AI on my smart glasses – but I want people outside of North America to be able to use Meta AI reliably. It’s a really useful assistant, especially on Ray-Bans, and it’s a shame that this important feature is now region-locked – even if it’s not perfect yet.
The second would be to see Meta AI reach better parity with the Apple Intelligence and Google Gemini upgrades we’ve seen at recent events, and perhaps some unique features. This could include integration with a wider selection of apps so it can pull context from more places, better speech recognition so you can talk to Meta AI more naturally, AI image editing and generation tools so you can edit snapshots taken with your Ray-Ban smart glasses on the fly, or a service that lets you summon virtual objects that you describe while using your Quest headset in a mixed reality sandbox.
A mini Quest Gaming Showcase
For my fifth and final entry, I’m going with something that seems the most unlikely, since Meta Connect doesn’t usually delve that deeply into gaming: a mini Quest Gaming Showcase highlighting some new and exciting VR titles.
We didn’t get a proper Quest Gaming Showcase this year, so I’d love to see some Quest titles get a chance to shine on a big Meta stage at Connect 2024. Mixed reality experiences and software that doesn’t have the recognizability of big game franchises (like Batman: Arkham Shadow) would especially help draw in more audiences.
That said, one particularly exciting announcement would be the revival of GTA: San Andreas VR after being labeled “on hold indefinitely” by a Meta spokesperson in August. That announcement is about as likely as hearing Silk singing during a Meta presentation (or any presentation in 2024, really), so I certainly won’t be holding my breath.