Facebook has moved hundreds of execs from its Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) research centre to work in a new product team focused on AR, as the company moved towards launching AR hardware, Business Insider reports.

The report says that one source estimated that there were 650 employees within the Reality Labs group and that 60 per cent of these were being transferred, but Facebook spokesperson Tera Randall disputed the figure, telling the publication that “a few hundred people moved out from FRL to work on AR product.” She added that Facebook is growing both teams and expects FRL to increase by 20 per cent this year.”

She also said that games industry veteran Michael Abrash is in charge of FRL, and will jointly lead the new AR product team with Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, Facebooks VP of AR and VR. These changes came into effect last November 2018, but have not previously been reported.

The report refers to another Facebook source confirming that the firm now has a physical prototype of its AR glasses. According to the source, who had tried the prototype on: “They look like really high-end glasses … its light enough to not feel heavy on your face, and it wasnt light enough to feel like you could just sit down and break them.”

The source said the original 2020 launch date had been pushed back to around 2022, but in a statement, Facebooks Randall disputed this, saying: “We have an exciting AR roadmap that includes multiple products, so your intel on release dates is wrong.”