Meta has openly declared its ambition to become the “Android of XR.” Interestingly enough, Android XR itself shares this vision of dominating the extended reality space.
What’s truly going to influence Meta’s ability to hold its ground against tech giants Google and Apple in the XR realm goes beyond just technical specifications or flashy features. It’s something as straightforward as flat apps.
Though interacting with apps like Spotify, TikTok, Snapchat, and Discord while wearing a headset might not seem the most captivating use of XR technology, Apple’s Vision Pro has highlighted their significance. By integrating familiar apps into the XR experience, it enriches the whole affair rather than isolating us from the digital world we know. Android XR is following this strategy, aiming to support all the Android apps found on the Play Store.
While Meta’s headsets are top-tier in gaming, the horizon for XR extends far beyond that niche alone.
Focusing solely on gaming limits potential growth; consider how a company like Nintendo, centered on gaming, can’t reach the heights of a broader computing giant like Microsoft. Microsoft’s value, much beyond gaming, soars 43 times higher. It’s not a perfect analogy since Microsoft obviously does more than just computing platforms, but the point stands.
So, when you look at the XR landscape, you’re faced with two key players:
1. Meta’s Horizon OS is equipped with the most extensive and impressive library of immersive apps.
2. Google’s Android XR boasts the most extensive and refined collection of flat apps.
For either to lead in XR, acquiring what the other lacks is essential. But who contends with the greater hurdle?
Meta appears to be in the tougher position.
Developers of immersive apps are constantly on the lookout for expansion opportunities. If moving to Android XR promises even a 25% user base increase, it’s an easy decision.
Conversely, major flat apps like Spotify, TikTok, and Discord aren’t likely to see significant growth moving to Horizon OS—maybe a marginal 0.25% boost would be expected compared to their massive Android presence.
You might wonder if porting apps is straightforward since Horizon OS lies on Android. Technically, yes, it’s not overly complex. The real hitch for these large apps with sprawling user bases is maintaining and updating them continuously—a substantial and ongoing investment.
This puts Google in a better position to attract vital immersive apps to Android XR than Meta is to lure essential flat apps to Horizon OS. Without a strong catalog of flat apps, Meta risks its headset being pigeonholed as a device purely for immersive gaming, rather than a versatile computing platform.
And that’s the last thing Meta desires. A decade ago, Meta entered the XR race to claim it as the “next computing platform,” long before Apple or Google could do the same.
While flat apps might not seem crucial to the XR experience for everyone, there’s no denying that a platform housing key flat and immersive apps holds a major advantage over one catering only to one aspect.
Even if Meta consistently develops superior hardware—let’s say 20% faster, lighter, and cheaper than its Android XR competitors over and over again—it might not make a difference in the grand scheme without significant flat app integration on its platform.
This presents a fundamental threat to Meta’s XR goals, a dilemma without a clear fix.
