Meta's CTO explained the company's reason for killing Move, Quest's fitness tracking feature.
Earlier this month the company emailed users to tell them that it would discontinue Move on March 31, just under two weeks from now.
David Heaney
That email claimed it was happening because Move "relies on legacy technology, which limits our ability to introduce new innovations for Quest users", and that the discontinuation would allow them "to deliver more advanced features to enhance the Quest experience". But now, Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth is providing different reasoning.
During his latest Instagram "ask me anything" session, Bosworth said that while Move has "a small but loyal crowd" of users, this crowd isn't big enough to "justify the expense of continuing to maintain and keep it going".
"We've done this a couple of times recently, and every time we do it, obviously it tremendously affects people in the community who relied on it, who are using it, and that sucks, so I am sorry about that", Bosworth says.
Bosworth's mention of doing this in the past is likely referencing the recent removal of the Scoreboards app on Quest, which let users view their Achievements on the platform, with him giving the same justification for that.
This removal of core system features is now a trend, suggesting shifting priorities at Meta as it slowly begins to transition its VR/MR business towards eventual profitability.
David Heaney
