Oculus Quest (or now Meta Quest) virtual reality headsets are getting a new update that focuses on productivity. Adding compatible physical keyboards, sharing links from your smartphone, multi-windows or faster actions to execute are on the menu to design the dematerialized office of tomorrow.
Source: Meta
Meta has understood the strong asset that Mark Zuckerberg’s company held in its hands for its future metaverse. So she pampers her Quest virtual reality headset with frequent updates that refine the achievements also for entertainment, video games, social exchanges and productivity.
On this last point, the parent company of Facebook knows that it is closely followed by Microsoft, a great specialist in the productivity aspect with its Office suite or its Mesh platform and its Teams service which form one of the advanced strengths of the future metaverse. from the Redmond firm, in parallel with the development of its gaming metaverse. So Facebook must not be overwhelmed and bet on the Quest for that.
The working metaverse becomes clearer
Last week, Mark Zuckerberg, as often lately, went there from his presentation video to unveil the new features to come from the helmet. And this v37 update is entirely dedicated to additions to work virtually in an even more comfortable way.
This isn’t new, and it’s been a few months since there have been additions to improve usability for working away from the desk, whether it’s working in virtual reality with Infinite Office, the addition of a usable physical keyboard, the opening multiple apps in parallel in Oculus Home to show up under your games. Recently, Horizon Workrooms has appeared to create a customizable virtual work room where you can also welcome your colleagues.
With v37, Quest headsets expand the possibilities with support for Apple’s Magic Keyboard over Bluetooth. Until now only the Logitech K830 keyboard was highlighted. This will make it easier to type text on a real keyboard that will also appear in your virtual field of vision for greater immersion.
Apple’s Magic Keyboard // Source: Apple
A physical and virtual keyboard to be more efficient in its task, but also ease of use of the helmet for many activities. Thus, Meta is playing the fluidity card with the addition of hand gesture tracking in the quick actions menu to access common actions more quickly (taking screenshots, voice commands activated, opening of a menu via shortcuts, etc.).
Hand tracking to access a quick action menu is coming to the Oculus Quest // Source: Meta
A virtual office more complete and intuitive than ever
The ergonomics of the work environment is an extremely sensitive point for obtaining massive support. If your virtual office isn’t easy to use, you won’t sit there. So everything is done for the most intuitive approach possible. Two modes will thus be proposed.
Source: Meta
Tablet mode will display 2D panels in a single window for users who want to focus on a single task or not get scattered with a display flashing all over the place. Desktop mode offers larger, more spaced-out panels. You can choose to arrange them at your convenience to make a multitasking virtual office, resize them.
Oculus Quest update brings ability to adjust tab display // Source: Meta
You can resize windows in Oculus Home on your Quest headset // Source: Meta
Easy link sharing from a smartphone
To work better in collaboration, also with people who do not have a compatible virtual reality headset, the update will make it less restrictive to share links with an Android user at first. From a smartphone and using the Oculus mobile app, it will be easy to send a link from the phone to the headset. The function should be available on iOS very soon.
Obviously, the Quest does not forget its variety of possibilities to make you stay. Recommendations of media content, games, applications, Fitness and Productivity sections will be highlighted as soon as the headset is switched on in a new stream called Explore.
Explore, the new Oculus Quest headset feed that offers content recommendations // Source: Meta
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