Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is gradually expanding the accessibility of the ‘Meta Horizon Worlds' platform to smartphones from being limited to virtual reality (VR) headsets.
Launched in December 2021, Meta Horizon Worlds is a 3D avatar-based social platform for VR that offers metaverse experience to its users.
By bringing accessibility to Horizon Worlds via smartphones, Zuckerberg is aiming to bring the metaverse experience to more people around the world. Meta is allowing access to Horizon Worlds via desktop as well as part of this service expansion.
Currently, the Horizon World platform is only available in Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, UK, and the US. Meta's plan to launch the platform in other locations, including India, remains unclear for now.
People in eligible locations can download the Horizon Worlds app, create their avatars, and enter the platform's virtual ecosystem, where they can play games and interact with other members of the community.
“The metaverse should be available to everyone—no matter what device they're on. And while Quest headsets are the most immersive way to access the metaverse, we believe there should be multiple entry points.
Bringing Worlds to more surfaces is a step toward delivering on that vision and opening up the experience to more people,” Meta said in an official post on September 14.
In 2021, Zuckerberg rebranded the umbrella brand for the family of social networking apps from Facebook to Meta, zeroing-in on making the company's branding and future in line with the metaverse.
Despite the big rebranding, Meta has been reporting losses in its metaverse division ever since its launch. Reality Labs, the metaverse-focussed division of Meta, lost a whopping $13.7 billion (roughly Rs. 1,12,200 crore) last year.