ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is reportedly working on mixed reality glasses, according to The Information. The device under development is designed to overlay digital objects on your view of the real world, and should be in direct competition with Meta’s upcoming mixed reality products.
The glasses are being developed by Pico, a virtual reality startup owned by ByteDance, the creators of the Pico 4 VR headset. Previous Pico products have tried to match Meta’s Quest headsets in terms of features, but these new glasses apparently represent a different approach (although they are still positioned as an alternative to Meta). Instead of a bulky headset, the glasses are meant to be small and lightweight, about the same size as the Bigscreen Beyond VR headset, which weighs 0.28 pounds. Pico is trying to reduce the weight of the device by shifting most of the computing work to a puck that is connected to the glasses by a wire. Meta’s Orion AR glasses prototype used a wireless puck with a similar weight reduction goal when the company demonstrated them in November 2024.
Pico is also reportedly working on creating “specialized chips for the device that will process data from its sensors to minimize the lag or delay between what the user sees in AR and their physical movements,” The Information writes.
Many details are still up in the air, but the report notes that the ByteDance/Pico glasses should be very similar to Meta’s next mixed reality device. According to UploadVR, after the release of Quest 3S, Meta postponed work on Quest 4 in favor of developing lightweight mixed reality glasses. The company has been publicly promoting AI devices such as the recently introduced Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, and it seems that its next Quest device will be closer to smart glasses than a VR headset with controllers.
It is unknown when ByteDance glasses will be released and where they will be sold. The current Pico headsets are not sold in the United States, and given the concerns about ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok, it seems unlikely that the company will be able to sell the mixed reality device without obstacles.
