Meta Connect 2024: Unveiling the Future of VR, AR, and AI

What to expect at Meta Connect 2024 -- the next Quest VR headset

Meta is holding its annual Connect developers conference next week, and it's going to showcase a bunch of expected and perhaps some surprise new VR and AR hardware -- alongside what might be a heavy Meta AI showcase featuring the company's newest Llama large language model and image generator in apps like WhatsApp. And as Meta sunsets custom tools for AR filters, we could end up seeing a whole new set of developer tools designed to harness generative AI experiences. Perhaps it will all come together in Meta's next big push into its alternative reality ideas (and namesake) in the metaverse, including significant Horizon Worlds updates. However, the most anticipated products expected to appear during the conference are the successor to the Meta Quest 3 and perhaps updates to Meta and Raybans, which are very cool smart glasses. Hopefully, we'll see the rumored "Orion" AR glasses, but we will need to catch the Connect keynote to find out. Meta's Connect developers conference this year starts on Wednesday, September 25th, 2024, and ends the next day on Thursday, September 26th. The conference will kick off with the Connect keynote, headlined by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, followed immediately by a Developer keynote at 2PM ET / 11AM PT. Meta has a full program schedule on the Connect site. The Meta Connect keynote will stream live on the official Meta Connect website. If you're a Quest headset user, you can also watch it on Horizon Worlds. Following the keynotes, you can participate in live developer sessions for deep dives on AI and mixed reality on Facebook. The most exciting thing about Meta is that it holds the keys to the closest thing to mainstream VR headsets with the Quest 2 and Quest 3. The latter, however, started at a price that was too high ($500 compared to the now $200 Quest 2) and did not have a very sharp AR video passthrough. Now we're expecting a cheaper version, the Quest "3S," that might sell for as cheap as $299.99, according to leaks. Meta also has other new VR headsets in the pipeline, including a new Quest 4 for 2026 and something at the pro level designed for spatial computing internally dubbed "La Jolla" for 2027. Recent reports suggest plans for the latter might now be on ice, especially as Apple's $3,500 Vision Pro struggles to gain traction. We may not see these models specifically at Connect, but other models in the pipeline may show up. Expect an update on the futuristic Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses at Connect too. The current glasses look clean and aren't too chonky, but they're ripe for an iterative update, even if no AR capabilities are coming. The glasses respond to your commands with Meta AI, so expect fresh chatbot assistant experiences on the way. Meta is also working on new mixed reality glasses internally dubbed "Orion," which we can expect at least a glimpse of. Snap recently let us wear its new AR Spectacles, but those are developer-only, and a former Snap engineer on the project called them "obviously bad." Hopefully what we see of Orion is a lot more interesting. Along with Meta's VR strategy comes expectations of new software and experiences, including the future of games on Quest. Right now, there are questions about what Meta is doing for games: it's shutting down the Ready at Dawn game studio that made immersive 3D games like Echo VR, while casual games like Wordle are rolling in. Meanwhile, Meta recently launched an app that lets you play console games on the headset through HDMI.

What to Expect From Meta Connect 2024

There’s hints we’ll see a new pair of actual AR glasses, plus the budget Meta Quest 3S. Meta’s big Connect showcase is slated for Wednesday, September 25. We expect to hear more about Meta's new AR/VR headsets and glasses, which could be your new gateway into so-called “spatial computing†without spending thousands of dollars on an Apple Vision Pro. CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s favored Horizon Labs division has regularly burned through billions of dollars developing upcoming mixed reality hardware. The blank check Meta offered its VR developers is reportedly being rolled back, though that doesn’t mean we won’t see interesting headsets and wearables at its next dev conference. Connect will be full of new AI enhancements and their connection to Meta's hardware slate. The big question is whether we'll see any third party headsets sporting Horizon OS make a debut as well. The big reveal may be a true pair of AR glasses, as Zuckerberg hinted at in a post on Threads earlier this year. We have a few leaked images for the codenamed “Orion†smart glasses, though we suspect, based on reports from The Information, that the glasses will have a projector on the right-hand lens. They may also be rather heavy for a typical pair of sunglasses, or at least heftier than the current and surprisingly popular Meta Ray-Bans. On September 17, Ray-Bans owner EssilorLuxottica declared they would continue their partnership shipping branded smart glasses. The timing may indicate Meta plans to share an update on its Ray-Bans, though recent reports indicated Google was also courting the global eyewear company. Either way, Meta will probably be keen to talk up its AI chatbot integrations into Ray-Bans and Orion. The other big hardware announcement will likely be a Meta Quest 3S. The “lite†headset briefly appeared in the Quest Store before being taken offline. Zuckerberg’s company reportedly canned its planned Meta Quest Pro 2, a sequel to the first Meta Quest Pro that didn’t catch on nearly as well as the Quest 3. This 3S headset may be a few hundred bucks cheaper than the $500 Quest 3. The tradeoff is Meta could potentially limit its passthrough capabilities. Though there haven’t been any rumors to point to, we’d be curious to see if any of the planned 3rd-party headsets make a debut at Connect 2024. Earlier this year, Meta opened up its Android-based Horizon OS for separate OEMs to headsets. According to Zuckerberg, Asus and Lenovo are supposedly crafting their own headsets. Meta is hedging on a more open ecosystem to draw more people into VR. Compare that to Apple's walled garden with its Vision headsets. The newcomer to the "spatial" market is reportedly planning to release a cheaper headset by 2026. Meta’s social media projects continue to take heat for their consistent role in the fraught U.S. election. We won’t have to listen through the company’s next steps for Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Threads since Meta’s true hopes rest on hardware and AI. We’ll likely hear a fair bit about some of Meta’s ongoing AI projects, such as the next stage of its Llama large language model. The company’s AI image generator was lambasted for struggling to depict Asian men with white women, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see more about the company’s image, video, and text models. The engineers at Menlo Park have already debuted several AI software suites, such as the AI Studio for creating customized AI chatbots without needing to learn to code. The idea behind this is for influencers to create chatbots to talk to fans for them. It’s a surreal and dystopic vision of social media, to be sure. Meta Connect will air Sept. 25 and 26 from the stage at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Meta will (hopefully) reveal exact timing for the event by next week. You can watch it via Facebook or, if you’re all-in on Meta’s vision, through the Horizon Worlds app on a Meta Quest headset.

Everything I Expect to See at Meta Connect 2024

Meta is behind a number of product categories and services, but at Meta Connect 2024, the company's annual developer's conference, don't expect to hear news specifically pertaining to apps like Facebook or Instagram. Instead, Meta says Connect is about the "technologies of the future," which means AR, VR, and AI. (All the acronyms.) Here's what we expect to see. The Meta Quest 3 is the company's current VR headset, and while certainly not as expensive as Apple's Vision Pro, it still costs $499 minimum. According to the rumor mill, Meta is working on a less expensive version of the Quest 3, perhaps called the Meta Quest 3S. This headset would cut some corners in specs and features to bring the price down, but hey, the price would be down. That could be an enticing offer for any interested in getting into VR, but who doesn't want to drop half a grand to do so. For the dozens out there looking for a spec bump in their Quest headsets, that might not be coming anytime soon: The Information says Meta canceled its pricier Meta Quest Pro project, which isn't surprising: Apple's Vision Pro has not sold well, despite sporting some impressive tech, and few of us have any interest in the Metaverse, especially for work. There seems to be a market for affordable headsets, but not for $1,000+ prosumer models. If a full headset isn't your thing, how about smart glasses? Rumor has it Meta is working on a sequel to its Meta Ray Ban glasses, perhaps named Meta Orion, which may add mixed reality abilities for the first time, like a heads-up display in the right lens. The current Meta Ray Bans come with smart features, like Meta AI, a camera, a speaker, and the ability to place video calls. Our sister site PCMag found the glasses stylish, with clear sound quality and responsive controls, but the bass was lackluster and it was difficult to precisely frame photos. Adding AR to this type of product might introduce mixed reality to a larger customer base: People might not want to walk around with full headsets on, but glasses are subtle enough to bring anywhere -- especially since they look nothing like Google Glass. Expect a good deal of AI talk at this year's Connect. Last month, Meta rolled out AI to its Quest headsets for the first time, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear about new features and changes for Quest specifically. I'm sure the company will also talk more about Meta AI on its core platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger: While I doubt it'll let you disable its AI, Meta may advertise new services users can try out on these apps, as the company competes with other AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini. Meta AI can now connect to the internet, generate GIFs, and produce images as you type, so it's definitely catching up to the big players. Meta has the advantage of an installed user base to push these new features on, offering competition for something like ChatGPT. Don't be taken off guard if Mark Zuckerberg starts talking about Meta's place as a leader in this mixed reality. The company has been making moves to be the "Android" of the mixed reality industry, by opening up the Meta Horizon OS and Quest ecosystem to third parties. Now, other companies can make their own headsets using Meta's platforms, just as other manufacturers build smartphones around Android, or other companies build computers around Windows. Meta Connect will kick off on Sept. 25 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET). While there will be an in-person keynote for developers and member of the media, anyone can livestream it from home. You can tune in from Meta's YouTube page, or from the official Meta Connect website.

Meta Connect 2024: The cheaper Quest 3S, AI, smart glasses and everything else to expect

It used to go by at least two different names -- Oculus Connect and then Facebook Connect -- but whatever the moniker, Meta's fall event is still a big showcase for the company's latest and greatest achievements in the virtual reality and mixed reality space. Much like last year, we can likely predict the biggest news coming out of Meta Connect 2024 with just two acronyms: AI and AR. Like every other big tech firm this year, Meta will be desperate to demonstrate how it plans to stay relevant in a future powered by AI. And now that we're seven months beyond the launch of Apple's Vision Pro, which arrived alongside a short-lived spike in interest in augmented reality (AR), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is likely eager to show off his own plans to make AR a reality. While Zuckerberg isn't as hot on the metaverse as he was when he renamed his company, the union of AI and AR is one way he can still make the dream of persistent virtual worlds come true. It might look less like Ready Player One, but if AR glasses actually take off, they could still let Meta control another piece of our digital world. And to help get them there, delivering an updated inexpensive VR headset couldn't hurt. With all of that in mind, here are a few things we expect to see at Meta Connect 2024, which kicks off virtually on September 25 and runs for two days. Orion AR glasses After reportedly killing a pricey next-generation mixed reality headset, which was meant to compete with the Apple Vision Pro, Meta is instead focusing on a pair of augmented reality glasses, codenamed Orion, as its next innovation. As seen in the background of one Mark Zuckerberg photo (above), and later somewhat confirmed by him, Orion resembles a pair of chunky hipster frames. Unlike the Quest 3, which fully consumes your vision and uses cameras to show you a low-quality view of the world, Orion could let you see the real world like a normal pair of glasses. But, like Magic Leap and Microsoft's HoloLens before it, Meta's glasses could layer holographic imagery on top of your reality. The key difference, of course, is that it appears to be far less cumbersome than those devices. "The glasses are, I think, going to be a big deal," Zuckerberg said in an interview on the Blueprint Podcast (via RoadtoVR). "We're almost ready to start showing the prototype version of the full holographic glasses. We're not going to be selling it broadly; we're focused on building the full consumer version rather than selling the prototype." Back at Meta Connect 2022, Zuckerberg showed off how the company was thinking of AR glasses, together with an intriguing wrist-based controller: "It's probably our most exciting prototype that we've had to date," Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told The Verge last year. "I might get myself in trouble for saying this: I think it might be the most advanced piece of technology on the planet in its domain. In the domain of consumer electronics, it might be the most advanced thing that we've ever produced as a species." According to a leaked Meta roadmap, the company plans to release a new pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses next year which would add a small built-in screen alongside its existing camera, speaker and microphone. That would be followed by Meta's first pair of consumer AR glasses in 2027. It makes sense that we'll see some sort of concept device this year. Much like Apple's Vision Pro was effectively that company's version of an AR/VR concept car to introduce developers to its notion of "spatial computing," Meta will need to give developers a way to use its platform so they can build their own AR experiences. Competitor Snap just debuted its fifth-generation AR Spectacles, and this version is oriented at developers (with a $99/month subscription fee). A cheaper Quest 3 variant Instead of an upgraded headset, all signs point to Meta releasing a stripped-down version of the Quest 3 called the Quest 3S, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Recent leaked images from Meta's own Quest Link application has confirmed the headset's existence. According to Gurman, the company is aiming to make it much cheaper than the current version, reportedly considering price points of $300 or $400, while still delivering an experience close to the Quest 3. The latest leak suggests it'll start at just $299. A user shared a clip of an Amazon ad reportedly shown on Peacock that features the Quest 3S, complete with a price and storage (h/t ). Per the ad, the 128GB Quest 3S will cost $299, but there may be other storage options as well. It could potentially replace the Quest 2, which remains in the product line priced at $299 long after its 2020 release. So why would Meta do this? There's a huge performance gap between the Quest 3 and Quest 2, which makes life difficult for developers. With a cheaper device that's similar to the Quest 3, potentially using the same processor, it would be easier to build games that can scale across two price points. According to Bloomberg's Gurman, Meta has also considered releasing some models of the new headset without any bundled controllers, which would push the price down even further. More AI, of course Expect Meta to show off even more ways it's taking advantage of AI across its Quest headsets and the Ray-Ban smart glasses. The company rolled out multi-modal AI search capabilities on those glasses in January, which allowed you to ask the Meta AI about objects or landmarks you were looking at, or for a quick translation. Based on our testing, though, those features were surprisingly half-baked. Meta will likely discuss ways it's improving those existing features by implementing its Llama 3.1 large language model (LLM), which it's positioning as an open source competitor to Google and OpenAI's LLMs. In particular, the company notes that Llama 3.1 offers dramatically improved translation, math and general knowledge capabilities. There's certainly room for Meta to introduce new AI capabilities powered by Llama 3.1 in the Ray-Ban smart glasses, but given their limited processing power and battery life, we'll probably have to wait for an updated model before we see anything truly groundbreaking.

Meta Connect 2024: What to expect, including Quest 3S and new AR smart glasses

Here's what to expect from Meta Connect 2024 Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable Launching during the week of Sept. 23, the social media giant is expected to rollout hardware and software goodies that will intrigue VR gamer enthusiasts, AI aficionados, and smart glasses devotees. But what, specifically, does Meta have up its sleeves? The headset boasted a sleeker, more comfortable design, as well as new AR capabilities, that made it more appealing than its predecessor. Once again, for Meta Connect 2024, the social media giant is expected to drop a new VR headset, but it's not necessarily an upgrade over the Quest 3. Rumor has it that Meta is planning on revealing a cheaper, more budget-friendly version of the Quest 3 called "Quest 3S." Whether it was intentional or accidental, as discovered by a Reddit poster, Meta leaked Quest 3S in its own Meta Quest Link PC app for Windows. For the uninitiated, this software lets users connect their Meta-branded VR headsets to a PC, allowing them to access more demanding PCVR games with just the Quest Link cable (which helps users siphon graphics power from their PC's GPU). Regarding price, Meta Quest 3S will reportedly have a starting price of $299. For reference, the starting price of the Quest 3 was $499 when it launched last year, so if the reported price is accurate, you'll be saving $200 with Quest 3S. Last year, Meta unveiled the second-generation Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, which is packed with Meta AI. This time around, according to a report from Business Insider, Meta is planning on releasing a new pair of spectacles that are totally unrelated to Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Called "Orion" internally, these glasses will focus on augmented reality (AR). AR incorporates virtual elements into your real-world environment. Meta's Quest 3 is capable of AR. For example, it has a "passthrough mode" that lets you see your true surroundings, but at the same time, you'll have the option to see or interact with virtual objects in your space. Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, on the other hand, have zero AR capabilities. It can play music, take pictures, capture videos, take calls -- and even lets you chat with Meta AI. However, it doesn't offer another augmented dimension -- but Orion, reportedly, will. Meta AI can be found across a myriad of Meta products, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and even the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Last year, Meta introduced Instagram-based "Meta AI Personas," which were celebrity-look-a-like chatbots that didn't quite resonate with many people, including Mashable's own AI reporter Cecily Mauran. Based on Meta AI, these chatbots featured the likeness of popular, high-profile people (i.e., Padma Laksmi and Snoop Dogg) while taking on roles like "Creative Writing Partner," "Travel Expert," and more. However, this year, they got the boot. This doesn't mean that Meta AI won't continue to be spotlighted during Connect 2024. We're expecting lots of AI updates during the livestream.

Meta Connect Starts Wednesday. Here's What to Expect

Meta Connect, the big developer event and hardware showcase from the company that runs Facebook and Instagram, is kicking off next week. Meta is likely to show off its new VR and mixed-reality technology, put a shiny polish on its meandering metaverse ambitions, and delve into all the fresh ways it plans to squeeze artificial intelligence into every crevice of its devices and services. The event takes place on Wednesday September 25, starting at 10 am Pacific time. The keynote address, where most of the new stuff will be announced, will be livestreamed. The host for the event will be Meta CEO and newly minted cool guy Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck's hour-long presentation will be followed by a developer-focused address at 11 am led by Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth. You can watch the events on the Meta Connect website or on Meta's YouTube channel. And yes, you can also watch it in VR in Meta Horizon. The focus of the event will likely be a fusion of Meta's mixed-reality efforts and its AI ambitions across its product line. Like any tech event, there are bound to be surprises. Here are the big things to look out for. The one thing Meta won't likely be announcing is a very expensive VR headset. It's a move informed by where the mixed-reality-device market is right now -- and whether people actually want to spend big to buy in. Instead, rumors abound about a so-called Meta Quest 3S, a headset which could be a cheaper version of the Meta Quest 3 with lighter features. Meta was briefly the bigwig in the AR/VR space 10 years ago when Meta (then Facebook) bought the VR company Oculus. Shortly thereafter, Facebook changed its name to Meta and sank $45 billion into its vision of a digital universe that most people just don't seem to give much of a damn about. Workplaces aren't using Meta's Horizon Workrooms that much -- we're all still on Zoom -- and despite the initial bouts of expensive corporate land grabs for digital real estate, users aren't exactly eager to move into the metaverse. Other companies have struggled to find their virtual footing. Apple released its first-mixed reality headset, the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro, in February. Since then, the product has been regarded as a rare misstep for the company, or at least very clearly a first-generation product not intended for the masses. The device didn't sell very well and was widely criticized as being an expensive, heavy, and ultimately lonely experience. (Apple mentioned the Vision Pro only once, in passing, at its optimistic iPhone announcement event on September 9.) Had the Vision Pro's, well, vision panned out, Meta may have been more inclined to pursue the pricy premium category of VR headset. In August, The Information reported that Meta seems to have abandoned -- or at least delayed -- plans to reveal an update to its Oculus Quest Pro that would have gone into the ring against Apple's Vision Pro. Bosworth, Meta's CTO, responded to that news on Meta's Threads platform and insisted the move is not that big of a deal, but rather a natural part of the company's device iterations. Still, it is a move that makes sense in the aftermath of the Apple Vision Pro fizzling out.