Facebook is building its own Operating System (OS). The social media giant hired Mark Lucovsky, the co-author of Microsoft Windows NT to handle this project. The OS will be used in Facebook’s Smart TV, Oculus, Virtual Reality/ Augmented Reality glasses and other products.
Facebook’s smartphone apps will remain available on Android. It is only building its OS not to solely rely on Google’s Android OS. Moving products to a self-owned OS will enable Facebook to prevent repeated privacy concerns.
See Also: Huawei to Launch its Own Operating System
“We want to make sure the next generation has space for us. We don’t think we can trust the marketplace or competitors to ensure that’s the case, and so we’re going to do it ourselves,” said Facebook’s VP of Hardware, Andrew Bosworth.
The new OS will give Facebook more freedom to deepen privacy and secure social interaction. This will also prevent disagreement between Google and Facebook in the future. In an interview with TechCrunch, Facebook said that the focus of this work is for its AR glasses. It is exploring the option of partnering with other companies, as well as building a custom OS for Augmented Reality.
In other news, the company also plans to move its AR/VR into a new office in the second half of 2020. It is also working on hardware experiences for enterprises. It is prototyping a VR video conferencing system for enterprises.
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