It’s Time to Admit Working in VR Has Been One Huge Failure

As I sit right here and sort these phrases, I can’t assist however consider the Meta Quest Pro. According to Meta, I used to be alleged to be doing all of what I’m doing proper now in a VR headset, not on a drained outdated laptop computer. That was the imaginative and prescient that Mark Zuckerberg outlined method again in 2022, and as chances are you’ll already bear in mind, it has not come to go.

Instead of revolutionizing work, the Quest Pro, Meta’s work-focused VR headset, noticed its $1,500 value slashed down by $500 a couple of months after launch, after which lastly discontinued in January of 2025. To add much more insult to that work-related harm, Meta formally wound down Horizon Workrooms for good on Monday. Horizon Workrooms, in case you want a refresher, was the corporate’s metaverse for work, which was apparently so superior to work in that Meta’s own employees never really bothered to use it. In some methods, the closure of Horizon Workrooms is simply yet one more indictment of the Quest Pro and every thing it tried to do for the way forward for exchanging labor for financial acquire.

And whereas the Quest Pro is the obvious monument to a failed work-focused VR experiment on the market, it’s removed from the one one. It’s secure to say that 4 years after the Meta Quest Pro’s launch, working in VR continues to be not figuring out.

Take the Vision Pro, for instance. Apple’s combined actuality headset is lots of issues. It’s a premium display for watching motion pictures, it’s an immersive FaceTime machine, and it performs some video games, though not almost sufficient contemplating that gaming continues to be one of the best a part of VR. But don’t you dare name the Vision Pro an XR headset—Apple’s machine is a spatial laptop. In addition to doing all of the stuff you’d anticipate from an XR headset, Apple’s machine is one thing you’re supposed to make use of as an alternative choice to a MacBook in lots of methods.

In addition to watching motion pictures or enjoying video games, Apple initially marketed its headset as a productiveness instrument—one thing you might use for 3D rendering or distant help. Beyond that, although, it additionally envisioned the Vision Pro as a instrument for extra on a regular basis white-collar work, pitching its “spatial computer” as an effective way to multitask with big-ass digital home windows. The Vision Pro isn’t only a headset; it’s alleged to be a little bit little bit of MacBook, iPhone, and iPad all in your face.

The factor is, in some metrics, the Vision Pro is a hit in that regard. It does adeptly deal with multitasking, and mixed with the Vision Pro’s hand- and eye-tracking enter system, the headset makes a windowed XR expertise really feel simpler than you’d anticipate. It additionally comes with options that might be helpful for work, like Personas, Apple’s digital avatars which might be surprisingly not wonky. The factor is, these successes really spotlight working in VR’s monumental failure. Apple might have made the last word headset for working, and nobody appears to care.

Sure, value continues to be a significant factor in work-focused VR/XR {hardware}. When Meta’s Quest Pro was launched in 2022, individuals gasped on the $1,500 price ticket, solely to just about scream a few years later when the Vision Pro debuted at a still-shocking $3,500. Those costs are going to routinely alienate a significant portion of the potential viewers. Then once more, Apple has made a reputation for promoting devices at a premium that most individuals would anticipate to be a dealbreaker. So, why is the Vision Pro totally different? For one, it’s a headset.

As somebody who’s strapped fairly a couple of headsets to his face, I can say for sure that the obvious draw back of headsets is probably going the most important motive why working in VR has been a bust—headsets completely suck to put on for lengthy intervals. If you’ve ever tried to make use of one for an prolonged interval, you realize what I’m speaking about. They weigh in your face and your nostril, they’re sizzling, and the battery life is sub-optimal at finest. There are lots of cool issues you are able to do with a pc strapped to your eyeballs, however there are lots of downsides to attempting to make that work, too.

Beyond the {hardware}, there are additionally important shortcomings with software program. The Vision Pro might need helpful options like the flexibility to run iPad apps and mirror or prolong your MacBook display, however enter strategies are lower than supreme. One factor individuals do quite a bit whereas they work is sort, and that’s one thing that XR corporations have simply begun to enhance on a software program stage.

I lately examined out Meta’s experimental Surface Keyboard characteristic within the Quest 3, and it’s a marked enchancment on typing in VR, although not one thing you’d wish to use on a regular basis. Previous typing strategies are nothing in need of painful, although, each within the Quest and the Vision Pro. Luckily, you need to use the Quest 3 and the Vision Pro with all kinds of various Bluetooth keyboards, although passthrough with Vision Pro, which helps you to see the keyboard in your desk whereas donning the headset, solely works with Apple’s personal Magic Keyboards. But one thing about utilizing most wi-fi keyboards you can’t see simply doesn’t really feel as seamless as Apple and Meta have made the Vision Pro or Quest out to be.

That’s all to say nothing of battery life, too. Unless you’re employed for about two hours a day (in that case, are you able to give me a suggestion at your job?), then you definitely’re going to should preserve your headset plugged in or take it off to cost incrementally all through the day. In both case, it provides to the general burden of utilizing a headset for lengthy intervals when you’re alleged to be assembly deadlines or smashing KPIs, or no matter it’s you do to pay your hire on time.

In some methods, it’s important to work to take pleasure in VR. Because of these constraints I discussed, and lots extra, the expertise of utilizing headsets isn’t what most would think about simple, and if there’s one factor that individuals don’t need work to be, it’s tougher. Headsets, nevertheless good or unhealthy they’re at doing the issues that corporations like Meta and Apple make them for, simply aren’t the perfect type issue for severe enterprise but. Maybe that may change as issues get lighter, inexpensive, and possibly much more highly effective, however I’m skeptical. If I had been to wager, I’d be running a blog about the way forward for work in VR from the identical machine I all the time use—a drained outdated laptop computer.