Quest's Horizon OS v76 PTC lets you use your Meta Avatar as a virtual webcam in video calling apps.
What Is the Public Test Channel (PTC)?
The Public Test Channel (PTC) is Meta Quest's beta release channel. If you opt in, your headset receives a pre-release build of each Quest system software, now technically called Horizon OS, version.
Note that there are often features in the eventual stable version not present in the PTC, and occasionally (but very rarely) features or changes in the PTC don't make it to the stable version.
The latest pre-release build of Meta's VR/MR operating system implements the Android API for accessing your selfie camera, providing apps a virtual video stream containing your Meta Avatar with your head rotation and hand movements represented, while your lip movements are estimated based on your microphone audio.
Further, a new 'Selfie cam' settings tab has been added to the Horizon OS settings, with controls to set the background image and virtual field of view.
Meta first confirmed work on this feature almost two years ago, and its inclusion in the PTC suggests it could ship later this month or in April.
Testing the feature out on a Quest 3, I found it worked in almost any sideloaded Android app I tested, including the smartphone build of WhatsApp. It did not, however, work in the web browser.
When it comes to the settings, the background image isn't yet implemented, while the field of view control works to let you show more or less of your avatar.
One oddity I noticed with the feature is that your head positional movement isn't incorporated, only rotation. This severely limits your ability to use your body movement as a form of expression, and makes it feel not like a real webcam at all.
It's also arguable that when driven by headsets that lack face and eye tracking - all Meta headsets to date bar Quest Pro - your avatar isn't a particularly appealing sight for a flatscreen caller. In VR and mixed reality the shared virtual space and spatial audio make meetings and hangouts compelling even with primitive avatars, but neither of these advantages transfer to flatscreen. Even Apple Vision Pro's realistic Personas don't come across well on flatscreen, and Meta Avatars are nothing like this. In fact, Meta Avatars don't even yet use the Audio To Expression technology Meta developed.
But the feature may be effectively just a placeholder until Meta is ready to ship the first version of Codec Avatars, its long-running project aiming to deliver photorealistic avatars in headsets and eventually glasses.
David Heaney
The avatar selfie camera feature comes around seven months after Meta added the ability to share your first person view in video calls. This means that with v76 PTC, you'll now have two options for providing a video stream to 2D apps.
