Meta has made a giant transfer to rent two distinguished designers away from rival tech large Apple, probably placing them to work on designing Meta’s subsequent era of AI {hardware} and the software program that runs on it.
Alan Dye, previously Apple’s vp of Human Interface Design, will be part of Meta to go up a brand new design studio inside Meta’s Actuality Labs. Billy Sorrentino, a senior director on Apple’s design workforce (and former WIRED artistic director) may even be part of Meta’s Actuality Labs.
In a submit on the Meta platform Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated the 2 would lead the brand new studio and “deliver collectively design, trend, and expertise to outline the following era of our merchandise and experiences.” In his personal Instagram submit, Sorrentino confirmed the information. (In response to a request for remark from WIRED, a Meta rep pointed towards the Threads posts by Zuckerberg and Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth.)
Dye has lengthy been a distinguished determine in Apple’s design workforce, main massive pushes like watchOS, the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, and the considerably controversial Liquid Glass redesign of iOS 26, which designers referred to as lovely however “exhausting to learn.” His change to Meta telegraphs a starvation from the Zuckerberg-run firm to re-create Apple’s dominance in interplay design, even when it has additionally brought on some folks to joke about what the Liquid Glass man will do to Meta’s design interface.
Anshel Sag, a tech analyst at Moor Insights & Technique, says that above anything, the transfer telegraphs a transfer by Meta to repair its usually stodgy and unappealing consumer interface throughout its platforms.
“Meta has all the time been a software program nightmare,” Sag says. “There’s a whole lot of inconsistency throughout all of Meta’s software program platforms. Fb, Insta, WhatsApp, Quest—they haven’t had the very best requirements of high quality. That’s very true of the consumer interface. If they need customers to remain on their platform, they’re going to have to repair the UI.”
The transfer comes as Meta continues to go completely all in on its AI efforts. Earlier this yr, Meta poured seemingly limitless cash into its effort to its so-called Superintelligence lab, which aimed to construct a workforce of high-salary AI superstars to advance the corporate’s machine intelligence targets. (Hirees began leaving barely a month later.) On the identical time, Meta can be contemplating massive price range cuts to its Actuality Labs efforts.
Above all, the corporate has leaned exhausting into its AI-powered sensible gasses, all however cornering the market with its Ray-Ban Meta lenses. That is the place Zuckerberg’s new consideration to design and trend are available in, contemplating that the Meta sensible glasses have succeeded in no small half due to the sharp designs of the frames made by its accomplice EssilorLuxottica. Individuals aren’t going to put on sensible glasses, regardless of how highly effective, if they give the impression of being dumb. (Working example, the brand new Meta Ray Ban Show glasses, that are very highly effective however look actual chonky.) Specializing in extra elegant designs has clearly change into a front-and-center precedence for Meta. However extra importantly, it has to make the units work nicely collectively.
