In its most recent move to keep its ambitious plans for the metaverse besides its core social network business, Meta presents a new method for individuals to log in to virtual reality headsets without using their Facebook accounts.
The launch of Meta accounts is planned for August, as per Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the organization now known as Meta, in a post on Facebook on Thursday. With their new accounts, users can access their Meta Quest VR headsets and check the history of their VR app purchases.
Although the reality is that most of Meta’s income still comes from its Facebook family of apps, Zuckerberg is going to persuade investors and a relative handful of clients that the company is changing course as the metaverse grows.
Several virtual worlds that may be accessed through VR and augmented reality technology make up Zuckerberg’s concept of the metaverse. The Facebook founder has recommended that VR and AR headsets represent the future of computing. He recently said he anticipates 1 billion users spending hundreds of dollars each in the metaverse by the second half of the decade, even though these devices are still specialized in a world dominated by smartphones.
But the tale seems remarkably different now. In 2021, Reality Labs, the Meta division in charge of setting up the metaverse and its supporting technologies, reported a $10 billion deficit.
After requiring consumers to use their Facebook identities to access headsets in the past, Meta is also attempting to make peace with its current clientele of Quest VR users. In reaction to the criticism, Meta announced in October that it would alter its strategy.
The firm stated in a second blog post on Thursday, “We received a lot of feedback from the Quest community when we announced that we would start requiring people to log into Meta Quest using a Facebook account. “We created a strong Meta account structure that allows consumers choice and control following analyzing that feedback.”
In terms of getting rid of the requirement for Facebook logins, Meta is altering its marketing plan to attract the brand even more. Users will now have Meta Horizon profiles rather than Oculus profiles. When Facebook bought Oculus in 2014 as a foray into the VR business, the name was moved to Facebook. According to the company, users may now customize their virtual avatars, usernames, and other information using their Meta Horizon accounts.
To access the company’s VR headsets, users will have a Meta account and a Meta Horizon profile, per a Meta spokeswoman.
Quest VR users will now have “followers” rather than “friends,” making the Quest nomenclature more similar to Instagram, according to the blog post.
The post explained that if you already own a Meta VR headset, your Oculus buddies will by default become your followers, and you will follow them back. “You can remove followers or unfollow anyone at any time.”
Furthermore, Meta is launching innovative tools that allow users to choose their privacy settings in VR. With these tools, users can decide whether they want their Meta Horizon profiles to be public, visible exclusively to friends and family, or kept private.
According to a spokeswoman, users’ privacy settings would instantly be set to friends and family if they don’t specify one. Current Quest VR users must choose a privacy setting to continue using their headsets.