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The year 2025 featured a variety of announcements from Meta, but there was no clear indication as to whether the Quest 3 will get a successor or not. In the absence of any concrete information, leaks and rumors filled the void. So, is Quest 4 coming, and if so, what should we expect from it?
What We Know
In 2025, we had two major plot twists regarding the future of the Quest product line. In June, we heard that the successors to the Quest 3 and Quest 3S, codenamed “Pismo High” and “Pismo Low” had been canceled. According to sources, Meta decided to pivot to ultralight glasses with an external puck and to offload the production of VR headsets to third parties such as Asus and Lenovo. The Meta Quest community reacted unfavorably, though some praised the move as an important step towards a more open ecosystem.
Then, six months later, in December, the strategy changed again. Meta paused its third-party program, cancelled the Asus and Lenovo headsets, and instead greenlit work on a first-party Quest 4. The exact release date is uncertain. It might happen as late as 2028, and we’re not even sure if it will be called the Quest 4, but it’s expected to run Horizon OS and have direct compatibility with the existing ecosystem. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, we can say it will be something like a Quest 4 or equivalent.
As for the ultralight glasses (codenamed “Phoenix”), they are still coming out but have been postponed to 2027. They are supposed to utilize hand tracking and be designed primarily around virtual screens, offering a mix between AR glasses and the Apple Vision Pro. One of the names floated for the device was ‘Quest Air,’ which suggests some limited compatibility with the existing Horizon OS store, but we will have to wait until 2027 to see. Once ‘Phoenix’ is released, the Quest 4 is expected to follow.
Quest 3 vs Quest 4?
What this means is that Meta is not planning to release any mixed reality headset in 2026. We can expect that, just like in 2025, the company’s main focus will continue to be on AR and AI. There have been rumors about Prada Meta Glasses and new features coming to existing models.
Therefore, given Meta’s timeline and roadmap, it makes little sense to currently wait for Quest 4. It will be at least two years before it’s released. It is, however, reassuring, both to developers working on Quest content as well as end-users, that the Horizon OS platform will continue to receive support and that it will be powering the next generations of hardware.
According to a recent memo leaked by Business Insider, the next Quest headset is supposed to offer a “large upgrade”. Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns described it as immersive and focused on gaming, which fits the existing Quest profile. 2026 is also when we expect Valve to release its “Steam Frame,” which caters to a very similar customer base. Postponing the Quest release until 2028 will allow the market to absorb Valve’s new headset and give Meta a second-mover advantage, enabling them to position the Quest 4 as a superior alternative with better specifications.
Quest Outsells Consoles
The reasons for this change in narrative are many, and some of which might not be available to the public. It’s possible that since Quest 3’s release in 2023, the cost of manufacturing the headset has dropped, or perhaps Meta’s Reality Labs have managed to achieve breakthroughs that suddenly made the Quest 4 a more convincing proposition. Perhaps the upcoming release of the Steam Frame played a role, or it could be that unsatisfactory efforts from Asus and Lenovo convinced Meta to take matters into its own hands. Or perhaps it’s a new high-level directive: Gabriel Aul, the current Meta Horizon Lead, is a Microsoft veteran known for preferring an iterative approach to scaling.
But what might be the most important factor is the hard sales data.
The Meta Quest is simply selling great, especially around Black Friday and Christmas. It sold well in 2023, it sold well in 2024, and this season, as reported by Janko Roettgers, it outsold every gaming console, including the Switch 2, which is a brand new device released in June 2025! The very competitive pricing of the Quest 3S might be a factor (given that the Switch 2 costs around $450), but it’s obvious from the numbers that the novelty of immersive experiences is not fading away and that it continues to have a strong pull, especially among younger audiences.
The caveat here is that outside the US, traditional consoles continue to outsell the Quest, sometimes by a noticeable margin. But even with this asterisk, it could explain Meta’s reluctance to hand over Quest hardware and Horizon OS to third parties.
James Cameron is On Board
Meanwhile, the upcoming “Phoenix” (aka Quest Air) is the one to watch. In the “Boz to the Future” podcast, James Cameron repeatedly expressed his excitement about his experience with Meta’s prototypes… to the point that he had to be reminded by Bosworth to show restraint. What he managed to say is that the hardware he tested was “way ahead” of the competition and predicted that next-gen devices would bring AR and VR to a true “inflection point.” He showed a similar struggle to stick to his NDA during a joint interview with Norm from Tested. While it’s not clear whether the headset he experienced was actually the upcoming “Phoenix”, seeing a filmmaker of Cameron’s stature this excited is something worth noting.
We also recently got a preview of what Phoenix might look like. Luna, a known VR enthusiast and leaker, had a chance to see the upcoming headset, and based on their and others’ experiences, produced a rendering of what it might look like and how it would compare to the Quest Pro.
Looking at the rendering, it’s clear that form factor will be one of the headset’s main strengths. The camera layout is similar to the Samsung XR’s and likely optimized for hand tracking rather than controllers.
The year 2026 is set to be the year of smart glasses. By 2027, the growing popularity of AI and AR glasses should help Meta promote its entire XR product line. Quest Air is expected to feature a form factor akin to ultralight goggles (or bulky glasses), and Quest 4 is supposed to set a new benchmark for high performance while also improving its ergonomics.
Have a great 2026!
Mat Pawluczuk is an XR/VR writer and content creator. As with all AR Insider contributors, his opinions are his own.