Meta's New Horizon OS Could Mean More VR Headsets to Choose From

Virtual reality essentially belongs to a few companies at this point: Apple and Meta are the biggest names, but with the newest announcement from Meta, that's all about to change.

On the Meta Quest Blog on Monday, the company announced it's opening up its virtual reality operating system, which it now calls Meta Horizon OS, to third-party developers so they can develop their own hardware based on the operating system. What's more, there are already a few companies working on new hardware that will leverage Meta Horizon OS.

Meta shared three such companies in the announcement: Asus's Republic of Gamers, Lenovo, and Xbox. Asus plans to develop new virtual reality gaming headsets that leverage Meta Horizon OS and Lenovo plans to "develop mixed reality devices for productivity, learning, and entertainment." And Xbox is teaming up with Meta to develop a limited edition Xbox-inspired Quest VR headset,

Meta also promises new features to the Meta Horizon OS, like making the experimental App Lab much easier to find and a bigger part of your VR experience, making it much easier to access more of Meta's emerging software and apps for VR.

The company also said it's "developing a new spatial app framework that helps mobile developers create mixed reality experiences." This could end up with more mixed reality apps from more developers showing up on your headset, whatever brand it is.

The timing on when you can expect to see new VR devices and applications based on Meta Horizon OS is unclear, but it's probably safe to assume that now that the information is public, those apps and devices will follow close behind.