We were never going to work in virtual reality. Anybody who ever plugged their noggin into a headset and tried to complete their daily grind knew it was never going to happen. Now Meta—the company that forced us to consider a future where all office drones are stuck inside VR headsets—is ready to pull the plug on VR and force us to accept the next inevitable step—working behind the screens of AR glasses.
Meta is finally excising Horizon Workrooms because, as the company put it in an updated help page describing the change, Horizon “has since developed into a social platform that supports a wide range of productivity apps and tools.” Workrooms will be kaput effective Feb. 16. If you were one of the few people making use of the augmented reality avatar-filled workspace, Meta suggests you instead use apps like Remote Desktop, Microsoft Teams Immersive, or Zoom Workspace.
Meta first introduced Workrooms back in 2021 when the pandemic had effectively shuttered most white-collar workers inside their home offices. Back before Facebook changed its name to Meta, and Oculus was still the name the company used for its VR headsets, Workrooms offered users the option to take a few blocky, lifeless avatars and sit them around boardroom meeting tables to collaborate, just as if their physical bodies occupied the same meatspace. Users could also customize their workroom with a remote desktop and keyboard, so they didn’t need to take off the headset to keep their productivity flowing.
Beyond the dystopian nature of being forced to work in virtual or augmented reality, the main problem with Workrooms is the same issue that plagues most all-in-one headsets: they’re uncomfortable to wear for more than a few hours at a time. These headsets inevitably lead to eye strain and fatigue, requiring constant breaks. If your meeting drags on for more than 30 minutes, the novelty of seeing an avatar instead of a flat Zoom window quickly wears off.
How long before Meta asks us to work with AR Glasses?
Workrooms was inherently limited. You can’t easily multitask when your field of view is limited to 104 degrees horizontally. If you need to check your phone, you either have to take off the headset, switch to a mirroring app, or cast your screen to the headset. While a power user who loves VR/AR may not that bothered, the average user whose boss forced them into a headset would find the experience excruciating. The Apple Vision Pro offers similar features to host group meetings using more lifelike Personas. However, you’ll still find that you’ll eventually need to take off the heavy headset for the sake of your face and neck muscles.
The end of Workrooms is likely tied to the cuts Meta made to its Reality Labs division. The company reportedly cut roughly 1,500 jobs from the Reality Labs division responsible for its AR and VR projects. The Mark Zuckerberg-led tech giant also axed numerous game studios responsible for some of the most lauded video game titles in VR. Aftermath reported on Wednesday that the layoffs also impacted Camoflaj, the studio behind Batman: Arkham Shadow. That game was one of the big launch titles for the Meta Quest 3S back at the tail end of 2024.
If business in VR or VR gaming is not the right call, then what’s left? It’s clear now that Zuck and co. don’t see virtual reality as a winning gamble anymore. Instead, the company’s latest obsessions are AR glasses and AI.
The Meta Ray-Ban Display offers the first hint of a future where we’ll never be able to avoid our screens. The device’s app offerings are currently limited, but they do support some POV video call features. However, I can already imagine glasses that use a Vision Pro-like persona plus POV footage for hosting work meetings. There are also glasses showing us how they could be used for livestreaming as well. Judging by the progress of face-based wearables, the promise of everlasting Zoom meetings forced in front of our eyes isn’t quite dead yet.
