Intertwixt 19: Metaverse Drift

January is rough, the year sucks, and I’m trying to get my comfort wherever I can. But it doesn’t help when one of your personal goal resolutions gets discontinued by big tech. Thank Meta for that. 

After a week in Vegas at CES, I’ve been trying to ask myself where the future lies. AI’s eternal firehose remains the broadcast answer: and Apple and Google’s deal to have Gemini power New Siri was the biggest news of all.

I won’t spend a lot of time on it. This isn’t what this Intertwixt is about. Gemini does intrigue me, though, because Google’s work with multimodal AI, using cameras to assist live AI services, is a preview of where Google’s 2026 glasses are headed. And maybe Apple’s, too, when they announce them. There are only so many tricks in the tech magician’s top hat.

But I’m also feeling a lot of XR headset frustration this week. Apple and Meta did their part to help.

Apple’s series of NBA live Lakers games, shot on immersive video cameras capable of 180-degree 3D video capture, debuted over the weekend. You need a Spectrum account to get them live. Read my story on it, but the point I want to make is that the experience when I tried it left me feeling just eh.

I’ve heard commentaries that Apple’s headset is the TV they always wanted to make. I mean, yes, sure, I felt the power of the display quality from my first Vision Pro demo in 2023. But in 2026, Apple’s $3500 headset is no less expensive, no more shareable, and is a very personal and pricey magic cinema. And the NBA broadcast merely did what all other Apple Immersive Video presentations already do: showed me lovely visuals that I couldn’t interact with.

I love using Vision Pro for watching films: it’s spectacular. But it’s not priced or designed to be just a personal cinema. It’s a whole computer, as Apple boasts, and it’s got a lot more possibilities for tricks up its sleeves. So, when I think of an NBA game in Vision Pro, I expect a lot.

I’ve been seeing immersive video in VR headsets for a decade now, and the quality keeps improving. But as I once again was reminded of during NFL playoff weekend, I like to multitask during games. I browse social feed updates for commentary. I check stats. I talk to friends. I sometimes do other things. Even in a stadium I do that. Everyone does.

During an immersive NBA broadcast in Vision Pro you just sit there, headset on, doing just that. I can use a pass through mode to see my phone while in headset, but why doesn’t the NBA broadcast allow me to conjure stats with my hands? Open other windows? Check feeds? The NBA app in Vision Pro also has a multi-screen mode with a tabletop view in mixed reality that’s also fun, but that can’t be conjured at the same time as the immersive video mode. You have to choose. But in a live sports experience I’d want it all, and easily swappable. Right now, it’s clear Apple hasn’t come any closer to solving that next level of immersive interaction meshed with video yet. They could. But without that, I think I’d rather just watch the game on a big everyday (or flat virtual) screen and at least multitask, like I did during my Vision Pro M5 review. If Apple can’t solve that conundrum, how will Vision ever be the multitasking future that Apple’s dreaming it can be?

I’ve found, over time, that the main thing I return to the Meta Quest for is VR workouts. Not games, even though the Quest has a lot of good ones. That’s because I have lots of places to play games, but only one place to do a virtual inspirational workout that inspires me to get exercise in a magical world. I don’t do workouts in Quest headsets all the time, and Meta’s headset is tough to wear while getting sweaty, but it showed me something that no one else has tackled yet. I think Apple and Google will enter the XR fitness space, or they should. Meta’s held the advantage in the meantime.

And the app I came to love the most was Supernatural, a subscription-based app that is still one of the best VR experiences I’ve ever tried. I didn’t even want to use Supernatural when it first emerged on Quest, because it felt too demanding compared to simpler games like Beat Saber. The 3D coaches, who appear before the rhythm-music workouts, won me over and made me feel welcomed. 

But now, this app is basically gone. This past week Meta laid off about 10% of its Reality Labs employees, including shutting down studios behind some of the best games on the headset. And Supernatural, while still staying online (as a subscription app, no less), won’t get any new content or updates going forward.

I was furious and sad about the news, and lost. The Supernatural community on Facebook, many of whom regularly share success stories losing weight and doing the VR workouts, has been equally upset and outraged. I know people in my own life who bought the Quest just for Supernatural. And its reach made it past “VR folks” to older audiences, people who discovered the magic of immersive tech in ways that Zuckerberg always seemed to dream of.

And yet I’ve never felt that Meta’s taken its fitness VR successes seriously. Why acquire Supernatural in the first place if it’s not being used as a foundation? VR adoption is too small to ignore any area of success. The Quest mostly seems to have retreated into being a game console, video viewer, and hopeful place for Roblox-like social play, although Horizon Worlds has never been anything I’ve ever wanted to use. Meta’s giving up on its work and enterprise ambitions for Quest, too.

So, Meta’s not giving up on its XR plans. Meta’s pivoting to smart glasses, and eventually aims to make AR glasses like Orion. But when, and with what apps? And as Meta aims to build on its foothold with smart glasses and AI, it’s running right into the teeth of where Google, and likely Apple, will head too. Meta doesn’t have its own watches, or fitness platform, or phones. Google and Apple do. And while Meta claims that VR is still a big part of their future plans, this week’s moves with Quest look like a series of retreats. Maybe Meta tries to evolve its Quest to compete with Vision Pro and Samsung Galaxy XR…but the Quest’s current position as a low-cost and accessible way to get immersed is perfect for opportunities like Supernatural. Yes, there are plenty of other fitness apps on Quest, many of them great. But I still feel like my go-to choice was taken from me.

I got to meet Supernatural coaches Mark Harari and Leanne Pedante a few years ago, and I shared my regrets about the platform’s death with them over text messages this week. Mark and Leanne have been sharing optimistic thoughts encouraging people to not give up on their fitness journeys, to celebrate their wins so far. What moved me about Supernatural was how, in the end, I felt like I was embodying the journey myself. It became the most intimate form of immersive experience. And it’s something Apple hasn’t even come close to yet. It also worked with my Apple Watch for heart rate tracking.

In related news, I watched a movie this week called Rental Family that really made me cry. In it, Brendan Fraser’s character lives in Japan and works for a company that hires actors to play roles for clients, living simulations for their benefit. Little immersive rental fantasies, in a sense. But Fraser’s character starts to feel it becoming too real, and wants these moments to last. But the rental agency doesn’t allow that. So he breaks the rules, because he feels honoring the real emotions felt by these simulations mattered most of all.

Supernatural has been my rental family. And I want it to last. But Meta’s not interested. I hope the metaverse, and subscription apps, are really goddamn careful pulling the rug from people on emotional and personal lifestyle apps like this in the future. It’s not ok to abandon them, even if it is capitalism in a nutshell. And if that’s just business as usual, well, don’t expect Meta to win back those customers anytime soon. And it makes me wonder what magic Meta can conjure for its future AR glasses if it’s already disposing of some of its best ideas in VR.

It’s just been a frustrating week for me seeing not enough movement in technology I feel could be transformative. XR’s arc ahead looks murky, but also busy. And crowded. And confusing.

Ok, deep breaths. These frustrations can be moments of inspiration. Paths forward can emerge. But it’s hard to wait for them. I want agency. I wish I could make my own experiences. But that’s not exactly easy, is it? Like many things in life, I’m dependent on the ideas others develop. The unknowns are still many. But I know that immersive live events and immersive fitness will be part of our future. I’m just impatient to see it all get here in the form I want.

See you next week.