Over the last 5 to 10 years Meta's Reality Labs has been heavily researching different glasses and display technologies.

The claim is that over roughly the past 5 to 10 years (about 2015–2025), Meta's Reality Labs, including its predecessors such as Oculus Research and Facebook Reality Labs, has done extensive research across many glasses and display technologies. True: Meta's records or credible reporting show sustained, large-scale Reality Labs research during that period on several glasses and display technologies (for example AR displays, waveguides, holographic or varifocal displays, smart glasses, Orion or Ray-Ban Meta prototypes). Mostly true: the research is real and broad, but it covers a somewhat shorter span, or a large part of it was VR-specific rather than glasses or displays. Mixed: substantial research exists, but only for part of the period or for a narrow set of technologies. Mostly false: the research was minor or mostly product engineering, and the claim greatly overstates its breadth or how long it ran. False: the evidence shows Reality Labs did no such research during that period.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Demo or Die: How Reality Labs’ Display Systems Research Team Is Pushing the VR Industry Toward the Future Meta (meta.com blog) · 31 July 2023 Own record

   “The first is Butterscotch Varifocal, which combines the varifocal technology from our Half Dome series of prototypes that we’ve been working on since 2015 (and talking about publicly since 2018) with a retinal-resolution VR display that we debuted in 2022.”

2. E2 Zero to One: How Our Custom Silicon & Chips Are Revolutionizing AR Meta (meta.com blog) · 5 March 2025 Own record

   “In 2017, Reality Labs Chief Scientist Michael Abrash, backed by Meta Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg, established a new, secret team within what was then Oculus Research to build the foundation of the next computing platform.”

3. E3 Orion’s Compute Puck: The Story Behind the Device that Helped Make Our AR Glasses Possible Meta (meta.com blog) · 4 March 2025 Own record

   “The culmination of our work at Reality Labs over the last decade, Orion combines the benefits of a large holographic display and personalized AI assistance in a comfortable, all-day wearable form factor.”

4. E4 2024 annual reporting - SEC.gov U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Meta Platforms, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal 2024) · 26 October 2026 Own record

   “In general, while all of these investments are part of our long-term initiative to help build the next computing platform, our metaverse efforts also include notable shorter-term projects developing specific products and services to go to market, whereas our wearables efforts are primarily directed toward longer-term research and development projects.”

In its fiscal 2024 Form 10-K filed with the SEC, Meta says its wearables efforts are mainly long-term research and development aimed at the next computing platform (E4). Meta's own accounts give specific dates. Its display research team has worked on varifocal display technology since 2015 (E1), and a team set up within Oculus Research in 2017 built custom silicon for AR glasses (E2). Meta also calls its Orion holographic AR glasses prototype the result of a decade of Reality Labs work (E3). The research looks real and broad across roughly the stated period, but much of the early display work described was for VR headsets rather than glasses, and all of the evidence comes from Meta itself.