Facebook just changed its name, and it’s taking Oculus down with it.<\/b>
\nFacebook, which today changed its name to Meta just for fun, is making changes to its virtual reality division to match its rebrand. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth announced that the company would transition away from the Oculus branding beginning in 2022. \u201cWe all have a strong attachment to the Oculus brand, and this was a very difficult decision to make,\u201d Bosworth wrote in a Facebook post. \u201cWhile we\u2019re retiring the name, I can assure you that the original Oculus vision remains deeply embedded in how Meta will continue to drive mass adoption for VR today.\u201d The Quest virtual reality headset isn\u2019t actually going anywhere. Its name is changing to Meta Quest, and Facebook Reality Labs is being rebranded Reality Labs, Meta\u2019s VR\/AR division. The Oculus app will also be rebranded to Meta Quest. Facebook\u2019s Portal division is getting the same treatment and will now be known as the Meta Portal. Rolls off the tongue, no? But the name change isn\u2019t all completely weird. Facebook is ditching the requirement to have a Facebook account to use Oculus, which is the least the company could do. It remains one of the major pain points of buying the $300 virtual reality headset. Facebook will hang onto the Horizon branding for its socially-focused virtual reality experiences with the transition to Meta. Meta Horizon will encompass apps like Horizon Workrooms, Horizon Worlds, Horizon Friends, and Horizon Profiles. Meta is now the umbrella for all Facebook\u2019s products. But the name change seems more likely due to the headlines surrounding the Facebook brand. After all, it\u2019s hard to trust a company to take you to the metaverse if it\u2019s also a platform for horrific events to be live-streamed as they\u2019re happening. If the Facebook Papers have taught us anything this weke, it\u2019s that Facebook knows it has an image problem, even if it\u2019s not quite sure how to solve it. Dropping the Oculus brand is a baby step towards separating Facebook\u2019s virtual reality hardware and software divisions from the divisive social network. But we\u2019ll have to wait and see if it\u2019ll be enough to convince non-Facebook users to step into the metaverse.<\/p>\n