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Spatial ComputingReflectionCareerAR/VRDecade

A Decade of Spatial Computing: 2016-2026

Ten years since I entered spatial computing. Reflecting on how the field evolved and where it's going.

Evyatar Bluzer
3 min read

I knew nothing about AR/VR when I joined Magic Leap ten years ago this month. A decade later, I've helped build systems used by millions and watched an industry mature.

The Arc of Spatial Computing

2016: Hype and Promise

Magic Leap was raising billions, everyone declared the Year of VR (it wasn't), and Pokémon Go hinted at what consumer AR might feel like. The technology was nowhere near ready for mainstream.

2018-2019: Reality Check

Magic Leap One shipped and did not transform the world. VR found its niche in gaming, enterprise AR emerged, and the hardware limitations became impossible to ignore.

2020-2022: Pandemic Pivot

Remote work drove VR adoption, Quest 2 reached a mass market, and Meta bet big on the metaverse. COVID accelerated everything digital.

2023-2024: Maturation

Quest 3 got mixed reality to good enough. Smart glasses came back with Ray-Ban Meta, Apple entered with Vision Pro, and spatial computing became real, if not universal. In 2022 I named Google and Apple as the competition to watch; one of them showed up with a headset.

2025-2026: Convergence with AI

LLMs transformed what devices can do. AI glasses turned out to be more useful than AR glasses, which was the bet I made on glasses in 2023: context over overlay. Multimodal AI began to understand space, which is as far as I can honestly take the language-as-query-interface I expected in early 2024. And computation keeps moving to the edge.

A decade of spatial computing, the field and meA year axis from 2016 to 2026; five adjacent era bars with a defining event under each, the last bar highlighted; beneath, a line with four dots for my own career stops, each labeled.201620182020202220242026Hype and promiseReality checkPandemic pivotMaturationConvergencewith AIMagic Leap raisesbillions; Pokémon GoMagic Leap Oneships; enterprise ARQuest 2 mass market;Meta bets on the metaverseQuest 3, Ray-BanMeta, Vision ProAI glasses andmultimodal AITHE FIELDMEJunior engineerat Magic LeapBuilding atMeta scaleIndependent,new domainsLeading perception for a shipping product
The five eras of the decade as the post tells them, with the event that defined each, and my own four stops beneath them, from junior engineer at Magic Leap in 2016 to independent since 2024.

What Changed

Hardware went from prototype to consumer product, with weight, power, and cost improving dramatically. Software went from research demos to production platforms - VPS, spatial anchors, and hand tracking all work now. Use cases narrowed from anything is possible to these specific things work, which is what maturity looks like. And the economics moved from VC hype to sustainable business models, with hardware subsidized by software and services.

What Didn't Change?

People still don't want things on their face for long; form factor remains the constraint. Wearing a headset in public is still weird, and cameras on glasses still raise privacy concerns. And we are still waiting for the iPhone moment - gaming is good, but it isn't the transformative use case.

Personal Journey

In 2016 I was a junior engineer learning everything. By 2018 I was leading perception for a shipping product, by 2020 building at Meta scale, and since 2024 I've been independent, applying the expertise to new domains. The field grew, and I grew with it.

What's Next for Spatial

Four bets. AI makes glasses useful before AR does, because understanding scenes matters more than overlaying pixels. Spatial computing goes ambient - less strap this on, more it's built in. The enterprise-consumer boundary blurs until it's the same devices running different apps. And privacy becomes the differentiator, because who you trust with spatial data starts to matter more than specs.

Gratitude

To everyone who built this field alongside me - the Magic Leap colleagues who shipped the impossible, the Meta teammates who scaled it to millions, the broader community still pushing the frontier - thank you. Ten years of building, and I intend to be here for the next ten.

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