Meta has ruined the thing that made me love VR fitness. Now what?

In quiet moments on tough winter days, I try to wear the Meta Quest VR headset for just half an hour. Not for playing games or watching movies. It’s so I can move.

Supernatural, a subscription fitness service Acquired by Meta in 2021It was the closest thing to a “Peloton for VR” I’ve ever experienced. It’s not the only VR fitness app, not by a long shot: Beat Saber, FitXR, Les Mills BodyCombat, Thrill of the Fight, Synth Riders, and Starwave are just a few others.

But the person who reached out to me and pushed me further, the one I chose, was supernatural. this Fitness app It became a comfort zone and motivation for me. I began to rely on personality coaches who I felt were there for me. It made me want to try working out more consistently. Supernatural was the only thing that kept me going Take my assignment On vacation. It was mine Editors’ Choice For virtual reality fitness experiences, this is part of what made me feel Quest headphones It was worth the price of admission.

Supernatural’s mix of licensed music with rhythm boxing and dancing, set in 3D landscapes, is beautiful. But the trainers, who are displayed in 3D video and talk you through the routines, elevate the experience in ways that surprised me. Pairing the app with heart rate tracking also made it something I could actually monitor my workouts with.

And now, basically, it’s gone.

It’s Not Gone: Supernatural is still around. But follow up Layoffs at Reality Labs recentlySupernatural has been moved into “maintenance mode,” meaning there are no new workouts, music, or words of encouragement from the coaches. It’s a “zombie app,” a frozen monument in the Metaverse that seems increasingly eager to be abandoned. For all intents and purposes, he’s dead. As dead as the previous one Fitness tracking app On Quest, which disappeared last year.

And it seems like VR is slowly being abandoned by Meta In favor of glassesI remind myself that virtual reality has survived waves Supposed near-death experiences before. But if the Meta continues like this, what will VR applications look like next? Will any of those we recognize be left behind?

Pivot to the metaverse

This isn’t the first time Meta has shut down games and studios. We’ve watched Echo Arena, the great free-to-play social competitive zero-gravity Frisbee game, disappear for years. This time, layoffs are dead Also included is closure Of several other prominent game studios that the company has acquired, making some of Best Quest Games In the past few years, including Asgard’s Wrath II, Batman: Arkham Shadow, and Deadpool VR. But the decline of Supernatural hits me hard.

Reports of layoffs at Meta suggest the company is shifting its Horizon Worlds social ecosystem away from headsets and toward phones, a direction it was already moving in. I don’t really use Horizon Worlds, despite the Meta’s constant attempts to channel every part of the Quest experience into it. My teenage kids don’t either, although they like to play some games on Quest. And on their iPads and laptops, they play things like Minecraft or Roblox. They won’t be moving to Horizon Worlds, that’s for sure.

Smart glassesWhile the hot hand is a A completely different ball game. The Meta glasses are AI-based, fashion-focused, and currently completely unable to run any third-party apps, and are more like wearables. Meta considers them wearable devices as well.

But in our quest to find some way to shape the future, what happens to those who have already found a reason, and love that reason? Apparently, they are falling behind.

Virtual reality could be the magic door to fitness motivation, but it’s being flushed down the toilet

I knew people who never cared for VR at all and bought Quest headsets to use Supernatural. I follow the Supernatural community on Facebook, where fans are constantly sharing their fitness journeys. I once went to a Supernatural fan meet, in New York, and was impressed by the people of all ages who attended and felt connected.

Supernatural isn’t just a metaverse per se, but in my opinion, it’s the closest thing the meta has ever gotten. He made me feel like I had somewhere to go.

The Meta was also ahead of the curve on fitness in the XR, an area I fully expect Apple and Google to get into once the hardware becomes streamlined enough to handle it. Why don’t they do that? At the right price, if it works, people pay for gym memberships, trainers and equipment. If done right, the XR could become the home gym of the future. It’s been that way for me, in parts, for years.

I keep asking Mita about that year after year. I asked Mark Rabkin, Meta’s former head of virtual reality, why the company isn’t expanding its fitness features further in 2024, despite having ongoing updates for Supernatural and Beat Saber. Task-based fitness was, at the time, called the “sedentary farmer.”

I’ve seen time and time again that the Meta puts less emphasis on fitness in the Quest headset. Alternatively, Meta makes fitness eyewear such as Oakley VanguardDesigned for running, cycling or skiing. But that’s not the same thing that gently guides me, as someone who doesn’t do any of those things, toward getting fit.

Smart glasses are being pushed towards those who already have an aspirational lifestyle. The magic of Quest is how it opened doors for people who didn’t know where to start.

Now, with a society that seems abandoned, I scream to myself: Why? Because profits weren’t higher? If the mission is to get loyal believers on a platform like VR, which has always struggled to get a foothold anywhere, it shouldn’t give up any enthusiastic groups at all.

And now, the form of virtual reality seems ready to transform into Something that looks like glassesand more artificial intelligence, and perhaps attempt to imitate apple and Google More of an app-focused headset style and 2D video, I have to admit, even I’m confused about where the Meta is going next.

Identity Crisis Quest…and Me

For me, the Quest is primarily a gaming console and fitness device. Remove those and what are you left with? I’m not sure.

Meta wants its headset to be a place going forward where telepresence happens, a simulation of the things we can do Maybe scan at home Share it with others and the community center. But guess what? You’ve just flushed one community down the toilet. And stripping Quest of its top game studios won’t make anyone more likely to play games on it, either.

Now I feel confused and lost. I’ve fallen into this comfortable place of relying on Quest as a tool to help balance my personal life and fitness. Working in VR on Supernatural became a goal on my daily checklist – I didn’t always achieve it, but I wanted to.

I can still go back and try the workouts on it now, but why would anyone keep subscribing? I felt these recorded training sessions, delivered by actual coaches on the Supernatural team, who were there with me every week. Waiting for me. This illusion has now been shattered.

Thousands of those ancient drills still exist, but they are ghosts. This does not mean that they do not have any value, but the coaches said their goodbyes on their social media pages.

Mark Harary, one of the coaches on Supernatural who I was lucky enough to meet in person two years ago, texted me when I told him how lost I felt: “I think the most important thing I want people to know is how much we, the coaches and the entire team, really love every moment of this journey together. Not just with each other, but with the amazing community that has supported us every step of the way. We did this for them. For every athlete discovering how strong and brave and capable they truly are. That’s what this adventure is all about. And if Supernatural has impacted your life in some way Positive, and if it brings you happiness and leads you to a better life…then keep doing it and keep celebrating everything we created together – because it was always for you.

Maybe I should make my own fitness plans now, and not rely on services that may suddenly disappear. All things eventually disappear, but isn’t that the biggest problem with the immersive, subscription-based digital lifestyles we’re all being asked to subscribe to? We are being asked to move, invest, and feel connected. Hence we have no control when it disappears. We were left feeling betrayed.

You might say that Supernatural is just one app. I know I can find other VR apps to motivate me, and I’ll remind myself to do so. And yes, the exercises you do still matter. I can build on that. But odds are strong, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to choose the mission within the next few months. And I’m sure I won’t be the only one.

It’s pretty clear that Meta would prefer we all buy smart glasses anyway. Except Meta isn’t the only company diving into smart glasses. Right now, the Meta has a unique and affordable advantage in VR, but that advantage may be fading before our eyes. After all, Steam frame of the valve It’s around the corner.

The future of the XR headphones and their software, even for a tech-savvy vet like me, is more uncertain than ever. But Mark is right. I have to keep doing what I started, even if it’s somewhere else. The ideas introduced by Supernatural will undoubtedly resurface again. But Meta may not do that next time.