Alongside the Connect date announcement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a photo on social media<\/a> teasing what\u2019s likely to be a new pair of the company\u2019s smart glasses which now span audio-only and a pair with a monocular display. In the photo the glasses were scratched out with blue markings to hide any identifying features.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s no surprise that Meta is hosting Connect once again this year, the 2026 edition of the event feels especially important for both the company and the XR industry at large.<\/p>\n The last 12 months have been anything but smooth sailing for those who are part of the XR industry. Canceled projects, layoffs, and closures at many of Meta\u2019s internal XR studios have shown the company\u2019s shifting of priorities away from XR and more toward its smart glasses business. Against the backdrop of similar struggles among external XR studios, the future hasn\u2019t been looking very bright.<\/p>\n Meta insists it\u2019s still committed to building and investing in XR, positioning its moves as necessary steps to course-correct on initiatives that didn\u2019t pan out as expected.<\/p>\n Meta Connect will be the company\u2019s next clear opportunity to give developers and customers confidence in the future of the Meta XR ecosystem.<\/p>\n One major thing driving uncertainty in XR right now is that Meta has announced several new pairs of smart glasses, but has not been clear about plans for upcoming Quest devices (the last of which, Quest 3S, was launched more than a year-and-a-half ago). Reporting suggests Meta\u2019s headset plans have been shifting internally<\/a>;\u00a0rumors have been swirling about a high-end puck-focused headset that would be a Vision Pro competitor, or a more affordable next-gen Quest.<\/p>\n Meta announcing a new headset at Connect is probably the strongest signal the company could send to show both confidence and direction in its ecosystem. If a new headset isn\u2019t announced, it will surely have the opposite effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meta\u2019s annual Connect event is set to return on September 23\u201324. The company teased what appears to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":955470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3162],"tags":[53,16,15,3243,3244],"class_list":{"0":"post-955469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-virtual-reality","12":"tag-vr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116563344256555049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/zuckerberg-glasses-1-640x465.jpg\")
<\/a>Image courtesy Mark Zuckerberg
\nMy Take<\/p>\n