Meta is reportedly bringing its long-dormant smartwatch back into production as it ramps up a plan to use a smartwatch to control and interact with its upcoming AR glasses.
Meta has long harbored the ambition to become one of the best smartwatches in the business, but we thought the plans had been put on hold for now. November 2022, Reuters (opens in new tab) reported that Meta was winding down development on two unreleased smartwatches and other hardware projects like the Portal.
However, according to the edge (opens in new tab)According to Alex Heath, who reportedly saw an internal presentation charting Meta’s next four years of releases, the smartwatch will be closely tied to the AR glasses Meta is developing. These smart glasses overlay digital information about your view of the real world and connect to the smartwatch, which has been described as a “neural interface” to help you control the flow of information directed to your eyes.
The smartwatch and AR glasses would be available for Meta employees to test in 2024, with a view to a general release in 2027. The smartwatch will also have health and fitness features and interface with Meta’s social media apps, though no more information is given in the report.
Noted leaker Kuba Wojciechowski also posted last month claiming that Meta’s smartwatch is back on the table. It’s a leak that now has more credibility thanks to the Verge report.
Leak: A new version of the @Meta smartwatch is in development, new details and photos below👇 pic.twitter.com/mlEgEQvWp5January 31, 2023
Before it was canned, Meta’s undeveloped smartwatch reportedly included a camera and a removable screen, presumably so you could lift the watch to your face and make video calls with it. That functionality appears to have been incorporated into the AR glasses, leaving the watch an optional operation.
How much appetite will there be for this? Meta’s constant push to connect us all seems to contradict the emerging trend for wearables to not be as intrusive as they once were.
By smart rings like Samsung’s latest gadget Unpleasant screenless and hybrid watches‘invisible’ wearables seem to be the direction the industry is heading in. Gen Z, who have grown up being constantly connected, are leaning towards retro technologies and aesthetics to get away from it all. Do we really want ads beamed into our eyes like some sort of dystopian Black Mirror sketch?
Meta, which for years has made the lion’s share of its money selling ads based on its users’ preferences, may want that for our future, but I don’t think it’s a sentiment shared by the market.
Maybe I’m wrong, but based on the direction the industry seems to be heading, this feels like more of the same overconfidence that Zuckerberg and co are causing. to pour billions of dollars into the Metaverse despite severe resistance and an extremely slow adoption rate among its customers.