Meta Quest VR Update Teases Major Upcoming Social Features
Meta may be working on a new feature that will let you easily share what you see in apps through, for example, a Quest 3 headset.
As spotted by UploadVR, a VR enthusiast posting on X claims to have rifled through the code in Horizon OS version 76, and found references to a feature not implemented in Meta Quest headsets just yet.
It's a form of screen sharing where only the content from a single pane or app panel is shared, not your entire view.
The proposed feature 'shares a panel so that other users in your world can see it,' the app code reveals.
Data miner Luna suggests this could be used in Meta social platform Horizon Worlds as well as Horizon Home, although there are clear issues for some of the ways you might think of exploiting this feature.
It's not going to work for movie and TV streaming apps, because sharing licensed content in such a fashion would be a major digital rights no-no. And Horizon OS already supports a form of full-view screen sharing through casting to a TV, or via Messenger or WhatsApp.
It could be handy for sharing the view of a web browser window, but that would also make more sense in a more productivity-driven device like the Apple Vision Pro.
Still, this is still an important forward-looking addition developers may want to take into account when developing software for the Meta Quest 3 and co.
It may also become more relevant in future as Horizon OS headsets broaden. In April 2024, Mark Zuckerberg announced the system was opening up to headsets from other manufacturers, like Lenovo, Microsoft and Asus.
While these third-party headsets are yet to appear, making the system more versatile is important in this endeavour, especially with Android XR set to arrive later this year as the core competition.
Horizon OS v76 was recently released as a public beta test, letting actual Meta Quest owners get their hands on it.
Other notable changes include a new Selfie Cam menu area. This feature lets you use your Meta avatar, complete with motion and hand gesture tracking, in place of an actual webcam image. The idea is this view can replace a webcam view in situations where you might ordinarily have one, such as video calls.
If you want to be able to try out these beta features early, you can join the Meta Quest Public Test Channel, which will see your headset sent early software. Meta has a page on how to sign up. Bear in mind you are more likely to encounter bugs if you do so.
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But with display tech in smart glasses, I feel that hump of social acceptance is going to take a bit more time to get used to. A great example is the Halliday glasses, which beams a 3.5-inch projected display into your eye from the top rim of the specs. All you have to do is look up at it, which on paper is seriously impressive. However, during my time talking to people wearing them at CES 2025, the amount of perceived eyerolls I got as they looked up to the screen did certainly make me feel like an inconvenience! And then more broadly with the display tech of tomorrow, you'll never really know whether someone is actually looking at you. At least with current bird bath panels making for slightly larger specs, you're giving off a big enough 'do not disturb' signal. But when they disappear and the transition to waveguide happens, it will take time for society to acclimatize. 'We all lose our time to these black rectangles called smartphones, so I see waveguides on smart glasses as a great thing to just glance at when notifications roll in without taking my phone out. But my wife is always on edge about whether I am actually paying attention to her.' said Lumus' Goldman. 'It's not like smartphones in that it's passive AI. There needs to be an AI actively listening to you that memorizes your routines, your conversations, everything about your day to deliver that efficient lifestyle.' Then, of course, there's the privacy concerns of wearing an always-on device on your face. How do you give permission to be seen by these glasses? What does that look like? We saw these become big issues with Google Glass in the early 2010s, and with a personalized AI assistant that needs to be always running to understand you, the worries will be significant and warranted. 'It's not like smartphones in that it's passive AI. 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