My predictions for Meta Connect 2025

As you know, this is my first year attending Meta Connect, and I’m pretty excited about it. And even if I have this new thing for me, I want to carry on my old tradition of playing the guessing game about what to expect at this event tomorrow. So here you are, my predictions about the upcoming Meta Connect 2025! As usual, read them, and then let me know yours in the comments below or on my social media channels.

AI everywhere

Meta has just spent a gazillion dollars to create an AI SuperIntelligence Lab, because AI is the hot topic now. So Zuck is forced to talk about artificial intelligence at his biggest event of the year. It is true that now there is a separate event about Meta AI, the LlamaCon, but it is also true that the commitment of AI by Meta is so big that it needs to talk about it to please the investors. So, expect AI to be just mentioned everywhere. You can even play a drinking game: every time Mark says “AI”, you drink a shot. I guess that after half an hour of the keynote, an ambulance will come to rescue you.

VR somewhere

This event will be about AI and smartglasses, and VR will be in the background. In fact, many VR influencers and content creators have not been invited to Connect this year.

I still think that virtual and mixed reality will be mentioned somewhere, because Meta is still committed to VR/MR and probably will release a new headset next year. So the Zuck will mention the Quest and probably some metrics about its “success”, to show that he has not abandoned XR. He can also tease something coming “soon”. I think he may even mention the word “metaverse” once.

We all know that Meta is going to announce new smartglasses at Connect. Smartglasses will be the main course at this event, and for a few good reasons:

• They are the best interface for people to use contextual AI (and AI is what Meta wants to talk about)
• They are being successful, so Meta is doubling its investment in them
• They are the first step in the path that leads to mainstream AR (hence the metaverse)

Meta will for sure announce the smartglasses that have been codenamed Hypernova (or Meta Celeste), which are smartglasses with a display and a neural wristband for controlling them. A video that has been recently leaked seems to show a color display and a Ray-Ban branding. If this is confirmed, it means that these glasses will be demoed in Ray-Ban stores, which would be fantastic for their success. These glasses are expected to be pretty expensive (the rumored price is $800-1000), and are probably aimed at tech enthusiasts and developers.

Meta and Luxottica will also release together Oakley Meta Sphaera, affordable smartglasses with a central camera that are aimed at athletes. These are a slightly different version of the Oakley Meta HSTN that was released a few months ago.

You can see what to expect from the smartglasses at Connect from the video below. As usual, Meta has “accidentally” leaked what it is going to release at Connect. An accident that happens every year, sometimes even in a pretty original way, like when a guy forgot two Quest Pros in his hotel room…

I also expect various sessions to showcase the use cases of these devices: an always-on AI assistant, real-time navigation directions, live translation, etc…

Glasses SDK

Meta has a few sessions about an “upcoming SDK”. The most probable option for this upcoming SDK is an SDK for smart glasses. Glasses are getting very popular, and it’s time to unleash their full power by letting developers create applications for them. Furthermore, Google is already working to release a preview of the SDK for its glasses by the end of the year, and Meta for sure wants to release something before it to not let all devs migrate to another platform.

An SDK for glasses is a huge opportunity for us developers, because glasses are a growing market, and I’m following this with a lot of interest.

Augments update

If Meta won’t release an SDK for glasses, then the other remaining option is that it releases an SDK for “Augments”, its mixed reality widgets. Augments are a very powerful feature that lets people decorate their physical space with useful widgets: a glimpse of how our mixed reality future will be. As Zuck said many years ago, in the future we won’t buy physical TVs, but we’ll just put a $1 TV mixed reality app on our walls. Augments is another feature I’m following with a lot of interest.

Unluckily for Meta, Apple has already released its own version of Augments, calling it “Widgets”. Given the importance of this feature, I think Meta has to answer somehow, by at least teasing some updates on Augments.

Codec Avatars preview

Another feature where Apple managed to undercut Meta is realistic avatars. We were all dreaming about Meta Codec Avatars when Apple released its personas for Vision Pro. The v2 of personas is already impressive and very realistic, and I believe that probably the v3 will be so good that whatever other product the other companies may propose in that field, will not be perceived as a “wow” update anymore, but just an incremental update.

I guess Meta must make some moves in this sense, either launching some new realistic avatars, or showing the current status of the technology, or announcing the release date for next year. If it doesn’t make it, I guess Meta will lose all its wow factor when releasing Codec Avatars. The big problem for Meta releasing Codec Avatars now is that there is no eye tracking in Meta Quest headsets (except the Quest Pro, which has been discontinued), and having a realistic face with no facial movements would feel pretty cringe. So I expect more of a tease/announcement than an actual release.

Horizon OS updates

Probably, VR will be mentioned regarding updates with Horizon OS. This may mean mostly two things:

• Talking about the work the company is doing with Asus and Lenovo to release HorizonOS-compatible headsets
• Announcing some updates on the Horizon Store, which is currently performing really badly for developers

The second feature is mostly wishful thinking, because I really hope that Meta does something about its store interface, which truly sucks, and it is sucking away revenues from developers. But given the focus on smartglasses, I’m not sure if it is really going to mention this at Connect…

Horizon Worlds integration with Horizon OS

Let’s be honest: Meta is merging Horizon Worlds into its operating system. This is slowly happening, with the OS becoming increasingly more multiplayer. I expect this integration to become even tighter: people could visit your home and even interact with some 2D apps together with you. Going in and out of Horizon Worlds from within the home will be easier than ever.

Meta is investing a lot in Horizon Worlds lately. Its creation tools are becoming super-charged by AI in a way that I haven’t seen anywhere else. So I expect some announcements about it, especially new features for creators, and AI integrations that are even more advanced than today. I wouldn’t find it strange if some new monetization tools and new funding for Horizon Worlds were to be announced, too.

Horizon Worlds content

I don’t expect new announcements about VR games, but I expect the announcement of new content for Horizon Worlds, especially new worlds built in collaboration with some famous brands (e.g. Nike) or TV series (e.g. Game Of Thrones). Meta is giving a lot of spotlight to Horizon Worlds content in its OS, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it announced some content about it.

… One more thing

If there is one thing that Zuck has learned in the past couple of years, it is that he can get a big buzz from the press if he shows a bold glimpse of the future. A couple of years ago, everyone got excited around Connect from the Codec Avatars and the “realistic” interview that Zuck had with Lex Friedman. Last year, it was the advanced AR-glasses Orion that were the star of the show. So I bet that this year, Zuck will show again something bold and cool about the future. What could it be? I don’t know, but let me try to put some options:

• A photorealistic NPC speaking very naturally thanks to AI
• A mixed reality headset that is very lightweight and has super-high resolution
• A vision about how the metaverse could be in 10 years
• Meta Orion 2.0
• A robot Mark Zuckerberg. Which is basically just the usual Mark Zuckerberg

And that’s it for my predictions! What are yours? Let me know.. I would love to play this guessing game with you 🙂

(PS As about what to expect from me: I’ll tweet a lot during the event to keep you updated about the news that is happening, and I’ll also try to make some videos to show you what the vibes are from Connect (to make you feel there). I’ll also write a couple of posts about it, but I’ll probably not write them immediately after the keynote because I’ll be networking at that time. So expect more “opinion” articles or “best of news” articles, then just plain reporting the news, because it would not make much sense to write the same news of Road To VR and Upload some hours later after they publish it. Anyway, it’s going to be fun!)

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