Meta Explores Home Theater Experience for Quest’s Horizon OS

Meta has always been a step ahead in providing ways to enjoy your own content on Quest, but let’s be honest—navigating through files and watching videos on a small panel just doesn’t give you that cinematic feel. The good news? They’re now exploring more immersive options.

Mark Rabkin, who heads up Horizon OS and Quest at Meta, recently shared on X that the team is toiling away on a new home theater environment. This would be part of Horizon OS, which not only powers Quest’s operating system but will soon be the platform for a range of third-party headsets as well.

Responding to queries about why a first-party solution isn’t already available, Rabkin assured fans that the team is hard at work. They’re delving into lighting and various effects to perfect the experience, alongside crafting top-notch audio.

This isn’t Meta’s first rodeo with theater environments. Back in 2014, when they were still known as Facebook/Oculus, they launched Oculus Cinema for Samsung Gear VR. It later evolved into Oculus Video for Gear VR and Rift, offering a solid option for watching personal content and renting movies. Oculus Social, released in late 2015, was yet another early endeavor. It allowed up to five people to gather virtually and enjoy Twitch or Vimeo streams in different theater settings.

Just to avoid a stroll down memory lane through obsolete apps, Meta’s more recent venture, Horizon Home on Quest, saw some updates in 2021. These allowed friends to join your virtual space to share videos and launch VR apps together. However, it lacked some features you’d expect from a full-fledged home theater app, like custom environments and advanced playback controls.

Over the years, the available content varied, but these apps shared a common drawback: they created unnecessary barriers between users and their traditional content. This nudged many toward other options, like Bigscreen and Skybox, or directly to apps like Prime Video, YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix.

So, what’s the next step for Meta’s theater dream? It may not bring all those scattered apps together into one grand theater-like experience. Still, having an integrated, go-to way to enjoy your own content in an immersive format could be a game-changer.