Facebook Owner Meta Announces New Virtual Reality Login System
Meta Platforms Inc is changing the way users connect to their VR headsets, reversing an earlier change to require accounts for the company’s flagship Facebook app on devices, but keeping the links to the social connections there.
The company will roll out its new “Meta accounts” starting in August, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The social media giant announced its plans to remove the Facebook login requirement last year, following backlash from users who had previously accessed the headset using separate accounts from Oculus, the virtual reality company that Meta, then known as Facebook, acquired in 2014.
With the new login structure, Meta accounts will control device-level access and manage app purchases, while Meta Horizon profiles will represent users’ social presence in VR, with usernames and associated avatars, the company said in a blog post.
Users will also have the option to connect their profiles into a unified Meta Account Center, which will integrate existing social connections from Facebook, Instagram or Messenger into their VR experiences, it said.
For accounts not added to the Account Center, the company will only combine user data across apps to count users and enforce security standards, a spokesman told Reuters.
In a memo last week, product manager Chris Cox alluded to the change, which he referred to as Project Simile and said it would “enhance continuity across the metaverse,” according to a copy of the message seen by Reuters. .
Meta has been pushing to integrate the accounts and other products through its “family of apps,” giving users cross-app functionality while allowing the company to consolidate data about their behavior in different environments.
The company announced plans to unify its messaging structure across all apps in 2019 and later that year launched a payment service, now called Meta Pay, through which users can process transactions across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Facebook. WhatsApp.
