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Alan Dye, a senior Apple interface design executive who helped shape the look and feel of post-Jony Ive Apple products, has reportedly left the company to join Meta, Bloomberg says. The move signals Meta’s growing push to blend hardware, software and AI-driven experiences under a high-profile design team.
Meta builds a cross-disciplinary design studio
According to Bloomberg, Dye will report to Meta’s CTO, Andrew Bosworth, and serve as the head of a new design studio tasked with coordinating product direction across hardware, software and AI. The studio’s roster reportedly includes former Apple designers such as Billy Sorrentino, Meta UI lead Joshua Tu, an industrial design group led by Pete Bristol, and metaverse design and art teams under Jason Rubin.
What Meta says — and why it matters
Mark Zuckerberg described the studio as an intersection of design, fashion and technology: "We want to treat intelligence as a new design material and imagine what’s possible when that material is abundant, powerful, and human-centered." In practice, that ambition suggests Meta is accelerating efforts to make AI a visible, tangible part of future devices — not just a cloud service.
How this changes the hardware playbook
- Meta has already found market traction with Quest VR headsets and smart glasses. Adding senior Apple design talent signals push toward more refined hardware iterations.
- Future products tied to the studio are expected to include next-generation smart glasses (an evolution of Meta’s Ray-Ban Display) and accessories like the Neural Band.
- The new studio is positioned to align industrial design, UI/UX and AI capabilities so experiences feel cohesive across devices.
Apple’s response and the wider talent flow
Bloomberg also reports Apple is recruiting a longtime UI designer, named Steven Lemy, to fill Dye’s role. Dye had significant influence on Apple's visual language in recent years, including work on visionOS and the so-called Liquid Glass aesthetic. Given Apple’s secretive culture, tying innovations to individual designers can be tricky, but Dye’s footprint on multiple platform-level design shifts was widely noted.
Industry movement isn’t new: several senior Apple designers have left for Meta and OpenAI in recent years. For example, Evans Hankey, a former head of industrial design at Apple, left in 2022 to work with Jony Ive and later contributed to hardware efforts at OpenAI. Other recent departures include designers tied to Apple’s iPhone projects.
What to watch next
Expect faster product announcements from Meta that emphasize polished, fashion-forward hardware and AI-driven interactions. For Apple, filling the leadership gap and defending its design language will be a priority — especially as rivals hire seasoned designers who understand the blend of software, hardware and experiential storytelling.
In short: this hire is more than a personnel change. It’s a strategic signal that the competition for elegant, AI-first consumer devices is shifting into a new, design-led phase.
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