Meta Launches AI Gaming App Pocket While Zuckerberg Admits Agent Development Has Fallen Behind Expectations

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Meta has quietly released a new app called Pocket, an AI-powered platform that allows users to generate small interactive games and experiences using text prompts, alongside a scrollable discovery feed of content created by others. The app, first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi and confirmed live on both the App Store and Google Play as of June 29, stems from Meta’s acquisition earlier this year of the team behind Gizmo, a vibe-coded mini-app platform that had accumulated 635,000 lifetime installs and a 98 percent positive sentiment rating before the deal. Meta has not officially announced Pocket, suggesting the product remains in an early experimentation phase.

Pocket extends Meta’s growing suite of consumer AI creation tools, which already includes AI image generation through its Meta AI app, AI video creation via Vibes, and AI features integrated into its creator-focused editing app Edits.

The quiet launch arrives alongside a more candid internal admission. At a company town hall, CEO Mark Zuckerbergtold staff that AI agent development had not accelerated at the pace leadership had anticipated, and that the expected benefits of the company’s AI-focused restructuring had not yet materialised. He suggested improvements could begin to emerge within three to six months.

Earlier this year, Meta laid off approximately 8,000 employees, around 10 percent of its corporate workforce, and reassigned a further 7,000 to AI-focused teams including a unit called Agent Transformation. Zuckerberg acknowledged the cuts had not been executed as cleanly as intended, and were driven by concern that the company was not adapting quickly enough. Meta is expected to spend up to $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year.

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