Meta pauses third-party Horizon VR headsets program

Meta has “paused” its program to license its VR operating system to other hardware companies so they could build their own headsets using the platform, as reported by Road to VR .

With the program, announced in April 2024, Meta announced that it would be licensing the Quest OS headset — which, at the same time, it also renamed to Horizon OS — to hardware makers like Lenovo and Asus. In a blog post at the time, Meta said that the program would give “more choice to consumers and a larger ecosystem for developers to build for.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video that “our goal is to make it so that the open model defines the next generation of computing, again with the metaverse, glasses, and headsets.”

But now, Meta is pausing the program to focus on its first-party offerings instead. “We have paused the program to focus on building the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market,” Meta spokesperson Johanna Peace says in a statement to The Verge. “We’re committed to this for the long term and will revisit opportunities for 3rd-party device partnerships as the category evolves.”

Meta recently delayed the launch of mixed reality glasses codenamed “Phoenix” from the second half of 2026 to the first half of 2027 and is beginning work on a new Quest device, according to internal memos reported on by Business Insider. The company is reportedly looking at axing up to one-third of its metaverse budget next year, and a spokesperson says that Meta is “shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward A.I. glasses and wearables.”