The Voices of VR Podcast
Hello My name is Ken Bye and welcome to the Voices of VR Podcast. It’s a podcast that looks at the structures and forms of immersive storytelling and the future of special computing. You can support the podcast at patreon.com/voicesofvr.
Meta Connect 2025 Coverage
So continue my coverage of Meta Connect twenty twenty five. Today’s episode is with Matt Hargett, who’s the founder of Rebecker Specialties. He’s been really focusing on this intersection of trying to create professional productivity and enterprise applications using a blend of different open source and WebXR and open standards technologies.
A couple of years ago, Meta had an event for a lot of the WebXR developers that I happened to sit on and listen to many different concerns. I had a chance to talk to Matt after this meeting of WebXR folks. At the time, Matt was working on bringing React Native to XR projects because he wanted to create a pipeline for XR projects using technologies that could eventually be used in browsers. However, the browser was a little unstable in delivering production-ready software due to ongoing changes beyond his control. So, he wanted to build a foundation on something like React Native, allowing him to build out these open stack technologies and eventually deploy to WebXR, while still using all those open source technologies.
Matt went down the React Native pathway for a long time and then pivoted over to NativeScript. He talks about the work he’s done in bringing React Native to Vision OS and some of the reasons he switched to NativeScript. He’s also collaborating with Call Stack and other developers to bring Node API to XR. This means integrating Node.js modules into XR projects for use in both React Native and NativeScript. The goal is to leverage what has been happening in the web development community with JavaScript technologies to create a pipeline for seamlessly integrating different libraries and technologies.
He launched Factotum, a Git visualizer to view different flows of commits. It’s an application you can check out to see the different NativeScript technology stack that he deployed to Meta and Pico. Essentially, he aims to create a way to write once and deploy across different XR platforms while building a solid open standards technology stack and open source stack.
Future of XR Development
I’m super excited by all the work he’s doing because it strays away from Unity and Unreal Engine as the sole options, opening up more opportunities to leverage broader open source technology communities. This would bring in more libraries, capabilities, and web developers into XR projects, representing a significant move towards diversity in XR experiences.
I also asked Matt what he thinks about the new engine. Are they using something like React Native? It’s unsure since they haven’t officially announced anything yet. I had suspected Matt might know more because of his extensive involvement with React Native across companies like Sony and Roblox. However, he didn’t have specific details but did share insights from his time working at Roblox and opinions on Meta’s expansion of Horizon to a more mobile-focused competitor of platforms like Roblox and Fortnite.
Matt provided a deep analysis of the quality of graphics used, and he expressed concerns about the performance standards set by previous gaming consoles. He illustrated how the success of Meta Horizon lies in their ability to deliver quality consistent with player expectations and technological constraints.
Interview with Matt Hargett
So this interview with Matt happened on Thursday, 09/18/2025, at the MetaConnect conference at Meta Setacores in Menlo Park, California. Let’s dive right in.
Matt Hargett: “I’m the founder of Rebecker Specialties, and for the last couple of years we’ve been focused on delivering a professional productivity product using WebXR and open source and open standard technologies.”
Ken Bye: “Maybe you could give a bit more context as to your background and your journey into the space.”
Matt Hargett: “My mom was a programmer, so she got me into programming and gaming early on. The first VR experience I had was actually with a VFX one helmet. I’m originally from Illinois but moved to California in 1997. In 1999, someone gave me this VFX one headset, which made me sick and gave me a headache, but I thought it could be viable if technology improved. I backed the original Oculus Kickstarter, hoping it would be a turning point in VR development.
Throughout my career, I’ve worked on various technologies. I was a principal engineer at PlayStation from 2017 to 2020, then at Roblox until late 2022. After leaving Roblox, I decided that I wanted to act on the ideas I had for XR technology, forming Rebecker Specialties.
That led to the desire to develop a pipeline for WebXR experiences using something like React Native for a more consistent production pipeline, enabling unit tests among other functionalities that third-party browsers make unreliable. After our prototyping efforts, by early 2023, we had a JavaScript bundle that worked across several headsets, but by mid-2023, I noticed the variable runtime quality of browsers across different vendors posed a significant risk to developers and businesses alike.
Eventually, we sought collaboration with another engineering partner, Call Stack, and began exploring how we could bring React Native to Vision OS. Thus far, we have released our work open-source to allow for seamless application on the Apple Vision Pro app store.
React Native and the Future
There’s excitement among developers regarding technologies like NativeScript and how they enhance the development processes. NativeScript is open source and viewed as a competitive alternative to React Native, enabling efficient mobile application development.
In conclusion, I believe the broader potential of XR and open standards technology will lead to significant enhancements in user experience and interaction within these environments. These technologies will empower developers to create diverse and immersive projects that meet the growing demand for high-quality XR applications.
So, whether you’re a developer or enthusiast looking into XR, understanding and leveraging these technologies will be crucial for creating the next generation of immersive experiences.