An upcoming update to the Oculus Quest and Meta Quest 2 will add mixed reality capture via iPhone and calling via Messenger, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed.
Update: Our original story said the Mixed Reality feature would need a green screen to work. This isn’t the case – apologies for the mistake.
Meta’s CEO revealed as much in a Facebook post today. Quest v35 is “landing soon” and will enable mixed reality capture via the Oculus app for those with an iPhone XS or above. No mention was made of possible Android compatibility.
Quest Gets Mixed Reality Recording (On iPhone)
Mixed reality capture refers to recording a VR player with an iPhone’s camera and having the capture present them within their given VR app. So you could film someone playing Beat Saber, for example, but rather than them swinging their arms in their living room, the end result would see them in the level of the game, holding their two sabers.
The feature isn’t to be confused with Live Overlay, which arrived in Quest v29 and let users cast their VR view to an iPhone that also overlays them playing in the real world on top of that feed.
Currently mixed reality support is limited to a handful of apps including Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, Synth Riders and Superhot.
Also arriving with v35 is Messenger calling, likely allowing you to use your Quest as a webcall device just as you would a smartphone or PC, and support for cloud backup. Finally, Zuckerberg also confirmed there would be new customization options for Horizon Workrooms “in the coming weeks”.
Quest updates often roll out slowly across the globe and Meta is rarely specific about their exact launch times and dates, so keep patient. Will you be using Quest’s new mixed reality feature when it arrives? Let us know in the comments below!
