Snap's CEO said his company doesn't use the word 'metaverse' because it's 'hypothetical' and people 'actually love the real world'

• Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said his company doesn't use the word "metaverse."
• He told The Guardian the metaverse is "ambiguous and hypothetical" and people "love the real world."

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said his company doesn't use the word "metaverse" because it's "hypothetical" and people "actually love the real world."

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is more focused on building augmented reality tools — which use a device to overlay images and information onto the real world — than making fully virtual worlds, Spiegel told The Guardian.

The word metaverse is a term borrowed from science fiction that refers to future technologies which allow people to access the internet through virtual reality headsets and other immersive systems. It has been heavily promoted by Mark Zuckerberg, who rebranded Facebook as Meta in October last year.

Spiegel doesn't seem to be buying into the metaverse hype.

"The reason why we don't use that word is because it's pretty ambiguous and hypothetical," he said. "Just ask a room of people how to define it, and everyone's definition is totally different."

He added: "Our fundamental bet is that people actually love the real world: they want to be together in person with their friends."

Snap unveiled a pair of AR spectacles in July last year. Meta is working on a similar product codenamed Naz are.

Spiegel isn't the only tech leader to express skepticism of the metaverse. Evernote founder Phil Libin earlier told Insider the metaverse was an "old idea" and "uncreative."