Beaverton, OR — June 15, 2026 — The Open Metaverse Browser Initiative (OMBI), created by the Metaverse Standards Forum™ in collaboration with RP1, today introduced Sneeze, the first open metaverse browser engine (MBE). Available immediately as open source under the Apache 2.0 license on the Forum’s GitHub repository, Sneeze gives developers, enterprises, hardware manufacturers, and researchers the foundational technology to build the open metaverse.
At the core of every web browser today sits an engine: Blink powers Chrome, Edge, and Brave; WebKit powers Safari; Gecko powers Firefox. Those engines were built for 2D documents. Sneeze is a new engine, purpose-built for spatial computing. Organizations can embed it into existing browsers or use it to power standalone native metaverse browsers. Sneeze delivers capabilities the current web stack was never designed for: proximity-based service discovery, secure multi-origin 3D scene composition through the Scene Object Model (SOM), per-service WASM sandboxing for security isolation, and real-time co-presence for AI agents, AR glasses, and enterprise environments at scale.
Market forces are converging, driving the need to make the web a truly capable spatial platform. Major technology companies are racing to ship AR glasses. Enterprises are deploying digital twins in airports, hospitals, and factories to transform operations with real-time spatial data. AI agents and autonomous systems are being designed for deployment in physical spaces, where they must perceive, interact with, and contribute to a shared spatial environment in real time. All of these applications need a common, open mechanism to connect to spatial experiences and services across devices, operators, and platforms, while retaining the same ownership and control as their web infrastructure.
No standards-based spatial platform exists today. Without one, every proprietary platform risks becoming a stack that can be discontinued at any time, stranding the organizations that built on it. Sneeze solves this by giving the metaverse the same open foundation as the web: a community-developed engine, based entirely around open standards, that any organization can build on reliably, with no single company able to discontinue or control it.
“Enabling users to seamlessly connect with spatial services, AI, and other users as they journey through the real world is a compelling definition of the metaverse. The web is the only platform that has the reach and openness to make this vision real,” said Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group and of the Metaverse Standards Forum. “Building the spatial web will need a constellation of standards from dozens of standards organizations. Enabling and fostering cooperative standardization is the reason the Forum exists, and building Sneeze under the OMBI is a perfect vehicle to catalyze, prototype, and deliver metaverse interoperability.”
How It Works
Sneeze enables self-hosted spatial content that works the way the web does today. Organizations host their own spatial fabrics, the metaverse equivalent of websites, on their own infrastructure. Sneeze handles multi-origin scene composition, rendering, networking, and security natively across mobile, desktop, VR, and AR devices without proprietary dependencies.
The engine can discover and load spatial content based on physical proximity. As someone moves through an airport, hospital, or factory, relevant content appears automatically without having to download multiple applications for each location.
Sneeze also makes shared immersive spaces seamless. Services from multiple organizations contribute to a single continuous scene through the Scene Object Model (SOM) while maintaining strict security boundaries through per-service WASM sandboxing. Each operator writes to its own branch of the scene graph, ensuring that no service can unexpectedly access another’s data or inject content into another’s space. Participants across AR glasses, VR headsets, phones, and desktops share the same spatial experience simultaneously with built-in presence, all without downloads or installations. To dive deeper into the OMBI architecture, go to omb.wiki.
The First Browser using Sneeze Is Coming
RP1 is the lead architect and maintainer of Sneeze, having developed the engine through OMBI in coordination with the Metaverse Standards Forum. RP1 is now building the world’s first native metaverse browser powered by Sneeze and will share more details at AWE 2026 and in the weeks following.
“We built the first metaverse browser as a working prototype on the current web stack and hit its limits firsthand,” said Sean Mann, Co-Founder and CEO of RP1 and board member of the Metaverse Standards Forum. “Web browsers were not designed for proximity-based content, for dozens of independent operators compositing in one scene, or for the spatial infrastructure that AR glasses and AI will demand. Developing Sneeze through OMBI and the Forum means it belongs to the entire industry from day one. Sneeze is to spatial computing what Blink is to the modern web, and the first browser built on it will prove the standard holds up in a real product.”
Built on Proven Open Standards
Sneeze builds on established open standards from multiple standards organizations, including existing internet standards (HTTPS, TCP/IP, DNS, etc.), the Khronos Group (ANARI, OpenXR, SPIR-V, glTF), the W3C (WebAssembly, Decentralized Identifiers), and many more. What is new is the spatial composition layer: the SOM, the evolving infrastructure for hosting and accessing real-time geolocated services, and the Sneeze engine itself, which makes multi-origin spatial scenes secure and performant.
Architecture and API documentation is available at omb.wiki/sneeze. Source code is live on the Metaverse Standards Forum GitHub. Universities, enterprises, hardware manufacturers, and individual developers are already contributing.
“The Open AR Cloud Association warmly welcomes this ambitious and exciting initiative, and its pursuit of a long-held dream: an open spatial web browser built on open standards and protocols. For this industry to finally realize its potential and benefit everyone, it must follow the playbook of the open web platform and resist the walled-garden XR ecosystems that proprietary platform builders have tried, in vain, to establish. AR exists within physical reality, which, at its very core, is a shared experience; dividing the same physical space between separate platforms that don’t work seamlessly together is meaningless. At a time when trust in big-tech platforms sits at a historic low, we believe businesses of every size, developers, creators, entrepreneurs, customers, and citizens alike are ready for the future of open spatial computing,” Jan-Erik Vinje and Ali Hantal, co-presidents, Open AR Cloud.
Academia joins the effort: the Open Metaverse Academia Alliance
Alongside Sneeze, the University of Rochester launched the Open Metaverse Academic Alliance (OMAA), bringing universities and research institutions into the open standards work underway through OMBI. Member institutions conduct foundational research on the metaverse browser engine, contribute to the open-source Sneeze project, and prepare students and researchers for careers in spatial computing. The alliance also partners with enterprise organizations to facilitate research across industries, and encourages participation from academic institutions worldwide.
“The open web was built in universities, and the metaverse should be too. The Open Metaverse Academic Alliance was created to bring universities and enterprise partners together to advance the open standards behind Sneeze and the Open Metaverse Browser Initiative, and to train the engineers who will build on them,” said Barry Silverstein, Director of the Center for eXtended Reality at the University of Rochester. “We invite academic and industry partners worldwide to join us in ensuring spatial computing is shaped by open research and the next generation of talent, with interoperability as a core foundation.”
To learn more or get involved in OMAA, visit https://www.rochester.edu/university-research/initiatives/extended-reality-research-and-application-extrra/open-metaverse-academic-alliance-omaa/
Get Involved
Enterprises can deploy spatial services without giving up the data ownership, revenue control, and platform freedom they have on the web today. Hardware and XR device manufacturers can ensure their devices reach every spatial service. Platform vendors can help shape the standards their products will run on. Standards organizations can channel real-world implementation requirements and feedback into their work. Developers and researchers can build a living testbed where specifications become working systems.
The engine is live, and the source code is open. Join the effort at metaverse-standards.org.
- Source code: https://github.com/MetaverseStandards/Sneeze
- The case for a metaverse browser: https://omb.wiki/standards
- Architecture documentation: https://omb.wiki/sneeze
- OMBI initiative: metaverse-standards.org/open-metaverse-browser-initative
Meet the Team at AWE 2026
The OMBI team will be at AWE 2026 (June 15–18, Long Beach, CA), presenting two sessions:
- From Web Browser to Metaverse Browser — fireside chat on Sneeze with Sean Mann (Co-Founder and CEO, RP1) and Neil Trevett (President, Metaverse Standards Forum and Khronos Group) on June 16 at 4:30 p.m., Room 101A.
- OMBI Architecture & Roadmap — open roundtable discussion on June 17 at 1:40 p.m, Room 103B, for anyone interested in getting involved.
Visit Khronos and the Metaverse Standards Forum at Booth #1041, and visit RP1 at Booth #928.
About the Metaverse Standards Forum
The Metaverse Standards Forum is a non-profit consortium dedicated to fostering metaverse interoperability. Open to all organizations of any size, including standards organizations, companies, and universities, the Forum is committed to promoting open standards, collaboration, and best practices to pave the way for an open, inclusive, and accessible metaverse. Metaverse Standards Forum members engage in building consensus on interoperability requirements, prototyping, plugfests, and open-source tool development. Learn more at metaverse-standards.org, and follow the Metaverse Standards Forum on LinkedIn.
About the Open Metaverse Browser Initiative
The Open Metaverse Browser Initiative (OMBI), created by the Metaverse Standards Forum in collaboration with RP1, brings standards organizations, technology companies, developers, and researchers together to build the spatial equivalent of the web browser: open, interoperable, and owned by no single company. RP1 is the lead architect and maintainer. Sneeze, the first open metaverse browser engine, is developed through OMBI and available on the Forum’s GitHub repository under the Apache 2.0 license. Learn more at omb.wiki.
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