Facebook to Create Its Own Operating System to Rely Less on Android

by Kay Lee

Facebook is developing its own operating system in order to rely less on other tech giants such as, for example, Google and operating systems like Android. It is quite possible that in the future, Facebook’s products (Portal and Oculus) might run on the new OS.

Mark Lucovsky, a software developer and former Microsoft employee who previously worked on creating the Microsoft NT operating system, was invited to build Facebook’s OS from scratch.

Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s vice president of AR and VR, said,

We really 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 gonna do it ourselves.

It’s not the first attempt of Facebook to create a separate OS, however, the last one was not as successful as the company wanted it to be. In 2013, the tech giant managed to create Facebook Home, which was a custom operating system still for Android smartphones and was released on HTC devices.

There is no information regarding the release date of the planned OS and the devices that will use it at first. Also, users will still be able to use Facebook-owned apps on Android and iOS even after the company’s OS arrives.

Apart from the development of the operating system, Facebook is currently working on its AR glasses that might be available in 2023.