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Meta already provides a way to view personal content on the Quest, but let’s be honest: navigating through a file system and watching on a flat panel doesn’t quite hold up to the allure of a full-blown home theater experience. Well, it seems like Meta is toying with just such an idea.
Mark Rabkin, who heads up Horizon OS and Quest, took to X recently to reveal that Meta is exploring the creation of a home theater setting for Horizon OS. This isn’t just significant for Quest fans; it’s also slated to be the operating system for a variety of upcoming third-party headsets.
When someone questioned why a first-party effort like this isn’t already available, Rabkin responded by saying the team is “working on all that, experimenting with lighting and other effects to see what’s best. Also trying to figure out awesome sound.” It’s clear that they’re keen on perfecting the ambiance and acoustics.
Interestingly, this isn’t Meta’s first stab at crafting a theater environment. Back in 2014, when Meta was still Facebook/Oculus, they introduced Oculus Cinema for Samsung Gear VR. This eventually evolved into Oculus Video for both Gear VR and Rift. It offered users a more cohesive platform for personal viewing and renting movies for on-device enjoyment. Fast forward to late 2015, and Oculus Social made its debut, allowing up to five people to connect and watch Twitch or Vimeo streams in a variety of virtual cinemas.
Turning to more recent endeavors, there was an attempt embedded in Horizon Home on the Quest, updated in 2021. This allowed several users to join in a shared virtual space to watch videos or launch VR apps together. However, this setup fell a bit short of being a dedicated theater app, lacking custom settings or advanced playback features you’d typically expect.
Despite shifts in content offerings over time, all those previous applications shared a common trait: they added just enough friction to deter users from fully engaging, nudging them towards alternatives like Bigscreen and Skybox, or even specific apps for Prime Video, YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix.
Looking ahead, Meta’s forthcoming theater environment might not consolidate all these fragmented platforms into one grand app. Nevertheless, the concept of a built-in, hassle-free option for watching your own media immersively might just be what fans are looking for.
