Elain Brown Tech 06.09.2022 08:Jun AM EDT

Meta's Development for Its Smartwatch with Dual-Camera Has Now Been Cancelled

Meta is reportedly canceling all its plans to release a smartwatch under its brand.

The parent company of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp is backing off with its project in the smartwatch industry.

The development of a smartwatch by Meta that has two built-in cameras has been discontinued. It was rumored that the product, which had the codename Milan, would be made available in the spring of 2023 at a price of about $349.

According to reports, the cancellation was brought about by a combination of technical challenges and Meta's ongoing efforts to reduce costs generally.

Meta's Dual-Camera Smartwatch

Meta's hardware division, Reality Labs, has been developing this smartwatch for two years now. Just this week, the employees were told it was now being scratched off. Despite the fact that comprehensive details have already leaked out in their entirety.

As of right now, the vast majority of smartwatches, including the Apple Watch, do not include any cameras at all. Hence, Meta thought that the existence of not just one but two cameras could differentiate its wearable in a sector that is already quite competitive.

The first camera would have been a front-facing camera with 5 megapixels that would be housed in a small display notch for use with video calls. The second camera was originally designed to be placed underneath the display and would have had 12 megapixels. The purpose The second camera is to capture photos and record videos when the device is removed from the owner's wrist.

The crucial selling point of Meta with their smartwatch is stated to be its dual-camera feature. Unfortunately, as reported by The Verge, Meta had issues with this second camera, which made it difficult for the watch to pick up nerve signals from the wrist.

This problem plays a significant role in the device, as Meta's would like to differentiate themselves from releasing a typical watch that is already available on the market.

Meta also hoped for their Android-powered watch to serve as a controller for augmented reality (AR) glasses and other metaverse devices the company would release.

Meta's Wrist Worn Devices

Meta also planned for Milan to be equipped with functions that are typically found on modern smartwatches, such as GPS, cellular networking, activity monitoring, and music playback. The team had high hopes that the watch would have a battery life of 18 hours on a single charge.

In addition, Milan was intended to access Instagram stories, WhatsApp messaging, access Spotify, access a photo gallery, a calendar, and track daily activities such as breathing.

According to 9TO5Google, Milan was supposed to launch after the new generation of the Apple Watch, Samsung's wearable watch, and Google's Pixel Watch.

This week, Meta informed staff who were working on the project that it would not be published; nonetheless, the company is still developing a variety of other wrist-worn devices. Again, this decision comes at a time when the firm is facing cost-cutting measures and other significant hardware endeavors, such as developing smart glasses and augmented reality headsets.

It is part of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's ambition to offer more consumer devices of its own and to minimize the company's dependence on users having to go through Apple and Google in order to utilize Meta's services.