In October 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent his trillion-dollar social media company in a brand new direction. Facebook has modified its name to Meta and Zuckerberg had his sights set on a brand new horizon, the metaverse.

“At the time, there was a real need and desire for Facebook, the company, to rebrand itself as something different,” said Leo Gebbie, principal analyst and director at CCS Insight. “The Facebook company wanted to make it clear that it was more than just this one social website.”

While the term “Metaverse” predates Facebook, Zuckerberg's Metaverse ambitions have existed inside Meta since 2014, when Facebook purchased virtual reality headset developer Oculus and Reality Labs launched. Seven years and a worldwide pandemic later, the video game industry's global revenue peaked $193 billion. Meta – and Wall Street – saw a possibility to capitalize on the growing online population and ride the wave of virtual reality headsets.

“In 2020 and 2021, there was kind of a feeling that this was a technology that was ready and that it was finally going to make a big breakthrough,” Gebbie said. “We’ve had a lot of misconceptions about virtual reality in the past.”

In December 2021, Horizon Worlds launched within the US and marked Meta's entry into the open-world virtual reality platform space. Meta had a short-term goal: 500,000 monthly lively users in Horizon Worlds by the tip of the yr. However, the long-term goals were more ambitious. In June 2022, Zuckerberg told CNBC's Jim Cramer that he expected a billion users “doing hundreds of dollars in e-commerce each” by the tip of the last decade.

The company still has a really long solution to go.

An insider report published by the Wall Street Journal In 2022, Horizon Worlds was found to have only about 200,000 monthly lively users, lower than a yr after launch. And now, three years later, the term metaverse has largely disappeared from public discussion Google Trends notes a pointy decline in searches for the term after 2022.

To make matters worse, Reality Labs is losing money and has racked up $58 billion in operating losses since 2020.

Meta didn’t reply to CNBC's request for comment.

What happened to the metaverse? What exactly is the metaverse? And where is Meta today? Watch the video to learn more.

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The most impressive aspect of MetaThe Orion augmented reality glasses are more about size and luxury than flashy computer graphics.

CNBC senior media and technology correspondent Julia Boorstin was capable of use Orion at Meta's annual Connect conference this week and was intrigued by the prototype's compact form in comparison with the assorted virtual reality headsets Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro.

“What really impressed me about them was that they were incredibly light,” Boorstin said.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the Orion glasses on Wednesday, calling them “a glimpse into a future that I think is going to be pretty exciting.” The glasses are black and have thick frames and are available with a wireless “puck” that permits the device to run apps comparable to a holographic digital chess or ping-pong game that appear as if digital graphics inserted into the true world are.

The experimental glasses are a part of Zuckerberg's multibillion-dollar plans to develop the subsequent generation of non-public computing for the so-called Metaverse, a term Meta uses to explain people interacting with one another online in 3D virtual spaces.

While Orion isn't able to transporting users into fully virtual worlds, the glasses can overlay the true world with digital graphics. And unlike VR headsets, which could be awkward to wear for prolonged periods of time, Boorstin says the Orion glasses fit well.

“The form factor didn't feel significantly different than wearing heavy, regular glasses, and it wasn't uncomfortable to wear,” she said.

Although the present version of the Orion AR glasses could pass as a movie prop for the movie Revenge of the Nerds, Boorstin believes they may only get smaller because the technology improves.

“This is the first generation – how much smaller will they be in four years?” Boorstin said.

When Boorstin wore the AR glasses, he was capable of see digital holograms that showed the visual icons of apps like Instagram, Facebook and a number of extras like a browser and a video game, mixed with the environment in a small office at Meta HQ.

Boorstin saw together with her own eyes how these digital symbols were superimposed on her real surroundings. This is an improvement over “passthrough” techniques utilized by current VR devices. For passthrough, corporations use cameras on the skin of their headsets to point out users a digital representation of the true world mixed with computer graphics on their devices' screens.

Orion is capable of overlay digital images onto the true world using a way more expensive method. Its lenses should not manufactured from traditional glass or plastic, but slightly a light-refracting material called silicon carbide. When Orion's miniaturized projectors built into the temples of the glasses shine light into the silicon carbide lenses, users can see “holograms” of their field of regard, an experience that Boorstin said “felt completely normal and very natural.”

When the holograms were off, “it felt like you were wearing glasses or sunglasses, and it wasn't distracting or nauseating,” Boorstin said.

Boorstin was capable of open, close and scroll through the apps using a wristband, which she said felt just like an old, lightweight Fitbit.

“The bracelet can detect your finger and hand movements, so your hand can be at your side,” Boorstin said, describing how her finger movements and gestures manipulated the digital symbols. “I was surprised that it was so accurate and that I could see these hand movements and it captured them accurately.”

In one demo, the Orion jars were capable of discover various food ingredients, comparable to chia seeds, that were unfolded on a table. An acceptable recipe was then projected, which appeared digitally over the true seed. In one other demo, Boorstin played an easy game of Pong, except that the video game's graphics were projected onto an actual desk in front of her.

One demo that basically impressed her was seeing the face of Stephen Desaulniers, her producer, appear digitally in front of her as he called from one other room. The overall experience of the 3D video call felt “very clear” to Boorstin, who noticed that the resolution of the graphics modified depending on where she placed them in her field of view. That was enough to make her query whether the producer could actually see her in real life, because it looked like he was standing in front of her (which he couldn't).

“I could see him perfectly, but he couldn’t see me,” Boorstin said. “But I could hear him and it was like I was FaceTiming him, but he was in my glasses.”

Through the experience with Orion, Boorstin has developed a greater sense of how Meta's research and development directly advantages the corporate's other products, comparable to Quest headsets and Ray-Ban smart glasses.

“They worked so hard to make these components tiny, tiny, efficient and weightless,” she said.