Snap’s CEO says the metaverse is ‘ambiguous and hypothetical’

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At this point, it’s pretty common knowledge that the metaverse is a thing that does not exist yet. Instead, it’s simply a term that Mark Zuckerberg came up with to describe the world Meta is trying to center around its VR efforts. 

Snap CEO Evan Spiegal seems to be on the same page and calls the whole thing “pretty ambiguous and hypothetical,” in a statement to The Guardian. “Just ask a room of people how to define it, and everyone’s definition is totally different.”

Because of this, Snap has no intentions of investing in Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse. Instead, the company is putting all its chips on augmented reality (AR). And that makes sense since its AR tech is used by millions of people every day in the Snapchat app.

“There’s now like 250 million people engaging with AR everyday on the smartphone alone,” Spiegel tells The Guardian. “And that’s on this tiny little screen that you’re looking through and you’re using your thumbs on. So we believe that trying to break some of those constraints, and go into a truly immersive and interactive AR experience, will be really important in the future.”

Snap has its own pair of AR Glasses out in the wild, and it’s currently in the hands of testers. Sure, they’re not perfect, but at least they have the ball rolling. In comparison, Meta’s AR glasses have a release date of 2024.

But Snap’s approach is simple. Instead of building tools to replace reality, the company hopes to augment the real world around you. Because realistically, who wants to spend all day hanging out wearing a VR headset?

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Editors’ Recommendations:

• Snapchat unveils a $230 self-flying drone called Pixy
• Meta is opening a physical store to conquer the metaverse
• Epic Games is pumping $2 billion into the metaverse
• Nintendo plans to focus on real virtual worlds, not the metaverse

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com or find him on Mastodon or Post.