Road to VR reported on September 16 that Meta is preparing more than a hardware tease for Connect next week. Citing The Information, the outlet says the company plans a live “hologram-like” video-call demo on Project Phoenix—Meta’s ultralight, puck-tethered mixed-reality headset—using an advanced build of the photorealistic Codec Avatars research line Meta has chased since 2015.
According to that reporting, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CTO Andrew Bosworth are expected to walk through the avatar call experience during the Connect keynote. Connect 2026 runs September 23–24 in Menlo Park. Road to VR is careful on the product question that matters for buyers: it is still unclear whether the stage demo marks a consumer launch of Codec Avatars or another research showcase of the sort Meta has staged before.
Phoenix on the clock. Hologram as the software hook.
Project Phoenix is the slim mixed-reality device that has dominated Horizon OS firmware leaks all month—glasses-adjacent form factor, nose pads instead of a thick facial interface, compute and battery shifted to a tethered puck. Prior coverage from UploadVR, Road to VR, Engadget, and TechRadar has treated Phoenix as a comfort-first follow-through on the Quest Pro idea, with reporting that still points at a 2027 consumer window rather than a buy page at Connect.
What September 16 adds is a concrete software narrative for that hardware. UploadVR’s long Phoenix brief already flagged “Hologram Calling” frameworks inside Horizon OS packages, with Codec Avatar references threaded through them, plus Meta AI app strings that describe a consumer-facing “Hologram” avatar flow on smart glasses. The Information’s reporting, as relayed by Road to VR, ties that research stack to a keynote demo on Phoenix itself.
That framing matters because Meta’s public avatar story has been cartoony for years—Horizon-first social presence, not photoreal telepresence. Codec Avatars were always the other track: high-fidelity face and body reconstruction aimed at putting a life-sized colleague in the room. Apple’s Personas already set a consumer bar for face-tracked calling on Vision Pro. A live Phoenix hologram call would be Meta’s clearest attempt to answer that category on its own silicon.
What is still rumor. What is not.
Verified today, from secondary reporting rather than a Meta press release:
- Road to VR (September 16) says The Information reports a Phoenix demo that includes hologram-like video calls built on advanced Codec Avatars.
- The same piece says Zuckerberg and Bosworth are expected to unveil that call experience live in the Connect keynote.
- Road to VR notes uncertainty on whether Codec Avatars will ship as a commercial feature or remain a controlled research peek.
- Meta has not, in the reporting we reviewed, confirmed Phoenix’s retail name, price, or Connect stage slot for a buyable headset.
Separately, UploadVR’s firmware and string analysis through August 2026 supports the direction even if it does not confirm a keynote beat: inward-facing eye and face tracking configurations associated with Phoenix hardware candidates, Hologram Calling sub-frameworks in Horizon OS, and Meta AI app copy that treats “Hologram” as a productized avatar path. Those are signals, not a ship date.
Connect week context
Connect arrives in a crowded September. Snap’s SPECS launch event is on the calendar for September 16 in Los Angeles. Valve’s Steam Frame is already in review and reservation circulation. Meta’s own public Connect agenda language has leaned glasses and software; Metaverse Watcher’s earlier Connect briefing treated a headset as a tease at most. A Phoenix hologram call would still fit that pattern—stage presence without a preorder SKU—while giving Reality Labs a telepresence story that is not another Ray-Ban camera argument.
Camera-free Luna glasses, reported the same news cycle for an October ship target, are a different product line aimed at privacy-sensitive AI audio wearables. Phoenix is the MR headset bet: passthrough, puck, and—if The Information is right—photoreal calling as the demo that makes the form factor feel necessary rather than merely lighter.
Metaverse Watcher will treat Connect’s livestream as the verification gate. Until Zuckerberg or Bosworth put a named feature on stage, “hologram-like calls on Phoenix” remains sourced rumor: strong enough to track, not yet a shipping promise.
Sources: Road to VR, Sept. 16, 2026 (citing The Information); UploadVR Phoenix brief; VR.org Meta Connect 2026 tracker; prior Phoenix leak coverage via Road to VR / TechRadar.