TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is reportedly developing a brand new XR device under its Pico brand – mixed-reality goggles to challenge the Puffin (perhaps now codenamed Phoenix) device Meta is said to be working on.
I've tested both of Pico’s last two XR devices, the Pico 4 and Pico 4 Ultra, and while those devices were solid, they had a few significant flaws that were impossible to overlook. Frankly, changing their design to goggles won’t solve those issues either.
While I’m excited by The Information’s report (behind a paywall) for a slimmer approach to XR tech, I believe Pico should take things further and slim down until it gives us smart glasses, either with just AI or AI and AR capabilities to match the products being promised by Meta, Android XR, and others.
What’s wrong with Pico?
In my Pico 4 review and my subsequent Pico 4 Ultra review, I gave each device four stars.
Hardware-wise, they boast some solid specs at a very affordable price, and with unique add-ons like their motion trackers, you can bring impressively accurate foot and body tracking to compatible titles.
However, they both struggled severely when it came to software and availability.
Software-wise Pico hasn’t offered users anything they can’t get on Meta, while Meta has plenty of exclusive games and services that you can’t enjoy on Pico. That is, with the exception of a dedicated TikTok app you can find on Pico, but if you’re concerned about the soullessness of doomscrolling on your phone there’s a tier beyond which is doomscrolling in a dark void while immersed in VR.
I’ve also felt that the Pico headset operating system isn’t on par with Meta’s Horizon OS.
As for availability, while Pico’s tech is purchasable here in the UK and several other regions, it is not available in the US. One of the main benefits of VR is you can connect to anyone anywhere, but that’s not possible if the product isn’t available to everyone in the first place – especially a key country like America.
How would glasses solve this?
Mixed reality goggles would make Pico’s tech slimmer, but without improved software and a solid suite of exclusives, it wouldn’t make the next-gen XR device any more appealing. What’s the use of a well-designed, powerful piece of kit if it isn’t as useful as its biggest rival?
AR glasses – or AI glasses – are a different ball game.
In AR, Meta doesn’t have the monopoly it effectively has in the VR space, nor does it have the same quality and quantity of exclusive software. That is to say that it would be much easier for Pico and others – such as Google’s Android XR projects – to come out the gate with glasses that are (from both a hardware and software perspective) on par or even ahead of what Meta has to offer.
Pico's glasses could offer Bluetooth audio, a competent AI, and cameras for capturing content from a first-person perspective. It could replace Meta’s ability to livestream directly to Instagram with the ability to stream straight to TikTok – arguably a more useful skill in the eyes of content creators.
None of this is to say Pico should give up in the VR and MR spaces entirely, just that the leaked goggles redesign won’t solve my biggest issues with its devices.
We’ll have to wait and see what Pico and ByteDance give us next. I’m hoping it's glasses, but I won’t be upset if it's goggles that can prove me wrong.
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