Meta’s latest Horizon OS update for Quest (v76) introduced a new Battery Saver setting as default, which has led users to experience frame rate issues in apps and games. Now, Meta CTO Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth says the company is rolling out a fix and “taking a serious look” at how OS updates are communicated in the future.

In a recent Instagram AMA, Bosworth addressed recent user complaints about a quietly included system default, which automatically toggles a more aggressive version of Quest 3’s Battery Saver mode.

Previously, Battery Saver limited Quest’s refresh rate to 72Hz, applied fixed gaze rendering, and reduced brightness to 50%—something which could be toggled on in the settings to extend battery life.

The latest v76 release of Horizon OS however includes a new version of Battery Saver as default, putting the headset’s refresh rate to 90Hz, but critically capping many games at a nauseating 45FPS.

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If users were unaware they could turn off Battery Saver, they would have no idea why the headset all of a sudden decided to act up, possibly even leading to blame falling on individual developers for poor optimization.

PSA: To disable Battery Saver on Quest 3, navigate to the “Power” settings within the “Device” menu in the settings app. Then, toggle off the “Power Saving Mode” option.

Notably, many Quest apps don’t use Application Spacewarp (AppSW), which some older titles implemented to smooth out low framerate stutter by generating synthetic frames between real frames, effectively doubling the perceived frame rate.

Bosworth says Meta is “rolling the fix out for that.” He further notes that while the usual staggering of Horizon OS updates “helps us identify regressions sooner,” the company could “do better on documentation” when it comes to patch notes. As it stands today, iterative Horizon OS patch notes are fairly paltry, often times only including a few line items without much explanation.

Here’s the full transcript of Bosworth’s comment below:

Yeah, good discussion and feedback from developers this last week on the stability and changes that we’re making in our rollouts, making sure that those are higher quality than they have been.

I think it’s great feedback. We’re taking it seriously for the battery saver issue. We’re rolling the fix out for that.

And more generally, I don’t think it’s the case that we’re rolling things out too quickly. I do think it’s just the case that we’ve got to have a stronger set of processes in place for quality control before things go out the door, which we’re doing.

We’re taking a serious look at this. We’re spending time on it. So we appreciate the feedback as always from developers. We take it seriously. That’s our responsibility. These are our mistakes. And we’re going to fix them.

And we understand that this is not casual. This is people’s livelihoods and time spent on the line that matters a ton in the experience that consumers have of people’s software.

So yeah, taking that seriously. We’re doing the work. I think staggering things helps because staggering things actually helps us identify regressions sooner. But I agree we could do better on documentation too.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Paul Tomlinson

    Every attempt at "communication" for OS updates is doomed to failure anyway, because it requires the consumer to read that update. Most consumers of these devices are not the techie-enthusiasts of yore, poring over the specs and tweaking things to their preference. People want these things to "just work", and the documentation and other learning-curve overhead needs to get out of the way.

    They need to do a much better job of putting the consumer experience first, and validate their ideas in the real world instead of echo chambers of validation—even for system updates.

    • blahblahblahblah

      True for 99.99% of users but some of us actually read those notes. I imagine it also would help devs to act on it instead of having hunches and talking to other devs via internal channels until finally someone is able to validate it and post on socials. Also blogs/sites can report on it quicker instead of having to play detective for weeks, talking/stalking devs, digging into internals, etc.

      • Paul Tomlinson

        I’m also a note reader (and a VR dev). The notes definitely need to be there, but a 0.01% safety net for the masses is a terrible margin. ;)

    • Sven Viking

      If it was explained well when released to the Public Test Channel there’s a good chance one of a few nerds like us may have read it and discovered the issue early.

  • Bozo

    Uh huh, and these brash clowns are not the 3rd biggest scammers in history!

    • YOU SON-OF-A-SNAKE!!

      You take that back, you take that back this instant!!

      • Bozo

        Okay, maybe 2nd biggest.

        BTW, Whitesnake was a sexy motha!

  • blahblahblahblah

    So you're telling me the future isn't here yet?

  • Sven Viking

    A bungled Meta system software update? Impossible!

    What I’m confused about is, isn’t this the purpose of the Public Test Channel? Was this problem not noticed there, or never tested there before wider release? Often it seems like a major issue is identified in the PTC and then weeks later released directly to everyone else without correction.

    • Max-Dmg

      The users are the testers, although they ignore most of the bugs.

  • Max-Dmg

    Meta are incompitent amateurs. Their development and support team are a joke. But not a funny one.

  • Max-Dmg

    There is no 'Device' menu in the settings…