Twitter’s Augmented and Virtual Reality Director Leaves Company

Twitter’s Director of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality has left the company after just eighteen months.

Alessandro Sabatelli announced his departure from the company in a post on Twitter, where he declared, “After three and a half years I’m moving on from Twitter (actual elapsed time 18 months).”

“It’s been an incredible ride and I’ve had the great pleasure to work alongside some amazing people!” he continued, adding, ” Together we managed to ship product while having fun. Thanks everyone.”

After three and a half years I'm moving on from Twitter (actual elapsed time 18 months). It's been an incredible ride and I've had the great pleasure to work alongside some amazing people! Together we managed to ship product while having fun. Thanks everyone #👊 pic.twitter.com/i0v9P9clrK

— Alessandro Sabatelli (@s4l4x) February 6, 2018

According to Tech Crunch, “Twitter hasn’t always been the quickest in its product development and the AR/VR scene (which is very much in its infancy still) hasn’t seen the company make too many daring moves.”

While Apple, Facebook, Snap and Google have shown off AR or VR developer platforms, there’s been little movement from Twitter in the arena.

The company has been slower to approach AR content creation features like selfie masks which have been on full display in competing products from both Snapchat and Facebook. The company’s biggest foray into virtual reality during the past couple years was likely the team’s work on Live 360 video in Periscope.

In 2016, Twitter fired their virtual reality project manager just 48 hours after hiring him, after previous criticism of homeless people in San Francisco surfaced.

In January, Twitter COO Anthony Noto left the company to join a startup.

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.