Meta is “still working” on options for logging into Quest headsets without your Facebook account, the company’s CTO reiterated in a recent question and answer session.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s new chief technology officer, recently answered one of UploadVR’s questions in a recent Q&A session delivered via Instagram. Many of our readers are Quest owners and have been looking for updates on the Facebook account policy change, first announced late last year, so we asked whether he could offer any new information.
He answered:
“Yes, this is still in the works, still on the way. One does not simply change the account structure, it turns out those data privacy regulations around how data is owned, how it’s moved, how it’s managed, are of critical importance to how we work at Meta and we’re having to work with all due care and diligence as we make these transitions, but we are still working on this, it’s still going to happen, so stand by.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the change in direction last October at the same time the company changed its name from Facebook. The change also marked a major turning point in Zuckerberg’s march toward independence from other technology platform companies as it aims to build an embodied version of the Internet. Facebook first acquired the Oculus VR startup in 2014 for $3 billion, but last year Meta’s investments in VR and AR technology rose to $10 billion with plans for growth even further in the coming years.
In October 2020, Facebook started requiring the use of its social media accounts with current “and all future unreleased Oculus devices” and the company said it would end support for the original Oculus accounts used with Facebook’s first consumer headsets by the start of 2023. Just a year on from that announcement, however, and Facebook shifted course to focus the entirety of its strategy toward its new “Meta” efforts. While the “Oculus” brand has already been replaced on various surfaces by “Meta”, many existing and prospective Quest buyers are still waiting to see what changes come with the company’s new account structure.
Later this year, Meta is planning to release the remote work-focused Project Cambria headset and will host its Connect developer conference to provide some of the latest updates.
