{"id":168865,"date":"2025-12-05T03:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T03:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/168865\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T03:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T03:30:10","slug":"meta-poached-apples-top-design-guys-to-fix-its-software-ui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/168865\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta Poached Apple\u2019s Top Design Guys to Fix Its Software UI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta has made a big move to hire two prominent designers away from rival tech giant Apple<\/a>, likely putting them to work on designing Meta\u2019s next generation of AI hardware and the software that runs on it.<\/p>\n

Alan Dye, formerly Apple\u2019s vice president of Human Interface Design, will join Meta<\/a> to head up a new design studio within Meta\u2019s Reality Labs. Billy Sorrentino, a senior director on Apple\u2019s design team (and former WIRED creative director<\/a>) will also join Meta\u2019s Reality Labs.<\/p>\n

In a post<\/a> on the Meta platform Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the two would lead the new studio and \u201cbring together design, fashion, and technology to define the next generation of our products and experiences.\u201d In his own Instagram post, Sorrentino confirmed the news<\/a>. (In response to a request for comment from WIRED, a Meta rep pointed toward the Threads posts by Zuckerberg and Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Dye has long been a prominent figure in Apple\u2019s design team, leading big pushes like watchOS, the Apple Vision Pro, and the somewhat controversial<\/a> Liquid Glass redesign of iOS 26, which designers called beautiful but \u201chard to read<\/a>.\u201d His switch to Meta telegraphs a hunger from the Zuckerberg-run company to re-create Apple\u2019s dominance in interaction design, even if it has also caused some people to joke about<\/a> what the Liquid Glass guy will do to Meta\u2019s design interface.<\/p>\n

Anshel Sag, a tech analyst<\/a> at Moor Insights & Strategy, says that above anything else, the move telegraphs a move by Meta to fix its often stodgy and unappealing user interface across its platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeta has always been a software nightmare,\u201d Sag says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of inconsistency across all of Meta\u2019s software platforms. Facebook, Insta, WhatsApp, Quest\u2014they have not had the highest standards of quality. That\u2019s especially true of the user interface. If they want users to stay on their platform, they\u2019re going to have to fix the UI.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move comes as Meta continues to go absolutely all in<\/a> on its AI efforts. Earlier this year, Meta poured seemingly endless money into its effort to its so-called Superintelligence lab, which aimed to build a team of high-salary AI superstars to advance the company\u2019s machine intelligence goals. (Hirees started leaving<\/a> barely a month later.) At the same time, Meta is also considering big budget cuts<\/a> to its Reality Labs efforts.<\/p>\n

Above all, the company has leaned hard into its AI-powered smart gasses, all but cornering the market with its Ray-Ban Meta lenses. This is where Zuckerberg\u2019s new attention to design and fashion come in, considering that the Meta smart glasses have succeeded in no small part because of the sharp designs of the frames made by its partner EssilorLuxottica. People aren\u2019t going to wear smart glasses, no matter how powerful, if they look dumb. (Case in point, the new Meta Ray Ban Display glasses, which are very powerful but look real chonky<\/a>.) Focusing on more elegant designs has clearly become a front-and-center priority for Meta. But more importantly, it has to make the devices work well together.<\/p>\n