Meta is pulling the plug on Horizon Workrooms, its workplace virtual reality collaboration app, as the company continues to restructure its metaverse division and redirect resources toward artificial intelligence. The social media giant announced in a Thursday blog post that users will lose access to Workrooms on February 16, 2025, with all associated data being permanently deleted after that date.
Launched in 2021 during Meta’s ambitious metaverse expansion, Workrooms was designed as a platform enabling remote teams to collaborate in virtual reality environments. The shutdown comes amid significant layoffs in Meta’s Reality Labs division, which develops the company’s VR headsets and the VR-based social network Horizon Worlds. According to The New York Times, approximately 10% to 15% of Reality Labs’ 15,000 employees face termination, translating to roughly 1,500 to 2,250 workers.
The metaverse initiative has proven to be an extraordinarily expensive venture for Meta, accumulating over $70 billion in losses since 2020. These mounting costs have prompted the company to execute multiple rounds of cuts as it strategically pivots toward AI development and deployment. This shift reflects broader industry trends where tech giants are reallocating capital from experimental metaverse projects to the more immediately profitable and competitive AI sector.
In a memo obtained by Business Insider last year, Meta’s Chief Technology Officer, who oversees the company’s metaverse efforts, characterized 2025 as “the most critical” year of his tenure, underscoring the pressure facing the division. Meta acknowledged that Workrooms demonstrated how Meta Horizon could facilitate workplace collaboration and connection, but noted that Meta Horizon has evolved into a broader social platform supporting various productivity applications and tools.
Additionally, Meta announced that its Horizon managed services will cease being available for purchase from February 20, 2025. However, existing customers will continue receiving support until early 2030, providing a transition period for organizations that invested in the platform. This measured wind-down approach suggests Meta is attempting to balance its strategic pivot with maintaining some customer goodwill and contractual obligations.
Key Quotes
the most critical year of his tenure
Meta’s Chief Technology Officer, who oversees the company’s metaverse efforts, described 2025 in this way in an internal memo obtained by Business Insider. This statement reveals the immense pressure facing Meta’s metaverse division as losses mount and the company redirects focus toward AI.
Workrooms showcased how Meta Horizon could bring people together to work, collaborate, and connect
Meta stated this in its announcement about shutting down the service. The past-tense framing suggests the company views Workrooms as a proof-of-concept that has served its purpose rather than a viable ongoing product, as Meta Horizon evolves in different directions.
Our Take
Meta’s retreat from Workrooms is emblematic of the broader reality check hitting the metaverse sector. Despite Mark Zuckerberg’s vision and massive investment, consumer and enterprise adoption of VR collaboration tools has remained tepid. The timing is particularly telling—as competitors like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft race ahead in AI, Meta cannot afford to continue bleeding billions on an unproven concept. The strategic pivot to AI is both necessary and overdue, allowing Meta to compete in generative AI, where it has already launched LLaMA models with some success. However, this shift raises questions about Meta’s long-term vision and whether the metaverse was fundamentally premature or simply the wrong bet. The thousands of Reality Labs employees facing layoffs represent the human cost of these strategic miscalculations in an industry where technological trends can shift rapidly.
Why This Matters
This development represents a pivotal moment in the tech industry’s evolving priorities, marking a clear retreat from metaverse ambitions in favor of AI investments. Meta’s decision to shutter Workrooms and reduce Reality Labs staff signals that even the most well-funded metaverse initiatives are struggling to find product-market fit and sustainable business models. The $70 billion in losses demonstrates the enormous financial risk Meta took on its metaverse bet, which has failed to capture mainstream adoption.
The shift toward AI reflects where the competitive landscape and investor expectations currently lie. While the metaverse remains a long-term vision, AI technologies are delivering immediate returns through applications in advertising, content moderation, recommendation systems, and generative AI tools. For businesses and workers, this pivot suggests that VR collaboration tools may not be the future of remote work that some predicted, while AI-powered productivity tools continue gaining traction. The layoffs also highlight the human cost of rapidly changing technological priorities, with thousands of Reality Labs employees facing job losses as their division contracts.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-closing-vr-horizon-workplace-app-reality-labs-layoffs-2026-1