Facebook Explains Its Plans for the 'Metaverse'

In a recent Facebook post, Facebook Reality Labs VP Andrew Bosworth explained the company’s new “Metaverse” product group.

It was recently reported that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sat down with employees in June to announce an ambitious new initiative. Zuckerberg said that the future of Facebook would go far beyond its current aim of building a set of interconnected social apps with some hardware to support them; instead, Facebook would strive to build a maximalist, interconnected set of experiences known as the “metaverse.”

But what exactly is the Metaverse? Facebook Reality Labs VP Andrew Bosworth attempted to clarify that in a recent Facebook post but still did not go into too much detail. Bosworth stated:

The Metaverse is already here as a collection of digital worlds each with its own physics to determine what’s possible within them. The defining quality of the metaverse will be presence — the feeling of really being there with people — and FRL has been focused on building products that deliver presence across digital spaces for years. Today Portal and Oculus can teleport you into a room with another person, regardless of physical distance, or to new virtual worlds and experiences. But to achieve our full vision of the Metaverse, we also need to build the connective tissue between these spaces — so you can remove the limitations of physics and move between them with the same ease as moving from one room in your home to the next.

Bosworth also noted a number of additions to the Metaverse team from other Facebook divisions, primarily from Facebook’s gaming and virtual reality businesses:

To focus our efforts and deliver on this vision, we are bringing together the teams that have been driving some of this fundamental work under the new Metaverse PG. I’m excited to welcome Vishal Shah, who joins us from Instagram to lead this new product group; Vivek Sharma, who joins us from FB Gaming, will lead the Horizon teams, and Oculus OG Jason Rubin, who also joins from FB Gaming, will lead the Content team as he and Vivek continue their work with FB Gaming partners on expanding the size and capabilities of Facebook’s gaming platforms.

Bosworth noted that there is “a lot of work to be done to bridge these worlds that will ultimately form part of the Metaverse,” and that he looks forward to seeing what this new group can accomplish.

From initial descriptions, it seems as if the Metaverse is focusing heavily on seamless communications and interaction between users worldwide combining existing Facebook products and services like Oculus VR and Facebook Gaming. Mark Zuckerberg and his company have their sights set far beyond current internet technology.