Meta already has a way to watch your own content on Quest, although browsing through a file system and viewing on a windowed panel is decidedly less immersive than a proper home theater. Now the company says it’s experimenting with the idea.

Mark Rabkin, VP leading Horizon OS and Quest, says in a recent X post that Meta is currently working on a home theater environment for Horizon OS, which is not only Quest’s operating system, but the soon-be-the OS used on a host of third-party headsets.

In response to a post wondering why such a first-party effort doesn’t already exist, Rabkin says the team is “[w]orking on all that, experimenting with lighting and other effects to see what’s best. Also trying to figure out awesome sound.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Meta developed its own theater environment. In 2014, Meta (then Facebook/Oculus) launched Oculus Cinema for Samsung Gear VR, which would later morph into Oculus Video for Gear VR and Rift, presenting a more cohesive way to watch your own content in addition to renting movies for on-device viewing. Released in late 2015, Oculus Social was another early attempt, allowing up to five users to connect and watch Twitch and Vimeo streams in a variety of virtual theaters.

Now-defunct Oculus Video app | Image courtesy Meta

Without rehashing ancient history (the list of now-defunct home theater apps goes on), Meta’s most recent attempt was in Horizon Home on Quest, which was updated in 2021 to allow multiple users to join your home space and do things like watch videos and launch into VR apps together. This however didn’t include many of the features associated with a dedicated home theater app, such as custom environments or advanced playback controls.

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And while the content on offer varied over time, all of those apps had one thing in common: they put enough friction in the way between users and traditional content that it essentially shunted users to support more open alternatives, like Bigscreen and Skybox, but also dedicated apps serving up Prime Video, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc.

That said, Meta’s next attempt at a dedicated theater environment probably won’t unite those fractionalized apps into a monolithic theater environment, although having a built-in, easily accessible way to immersively watch your own content might just be enough.

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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.
  • impurekind

    About time. Now get The Super Mario Bros. Movie in stereoscopic 3D on there officially in the highest quality possible. Dagnamit!

  • Hussain X

    I hope they add support for streaming over home network server/usb memory. By awesome sound, I hope they mean support for more audio codecs as well as surround sound.

  • Dale Kirkley

    It already exists, and is awesome.

    Its called Skybox.

    • xyzs

      Skybox is pretty good.
      I wish the development was more active, though.
      The app was dead for some years, and it was like bought by some new devs, but it seems they are not full-time on it, and they turned it into a paying app at the same time.

      It's cool Meta does their own one. That may set a new standard.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    How I select a movie doesn't really matter to me, keep it simple and not like the utter crap 'library'views of many streaming apps. But once I start the movie, all I want to see is the image projected on a black background, no fake darkened environment or something.

    • Wishbringer

      A completely black background contrasted with a bright video can be hard on the eyes. I prefer a surrounding environment that can be darkened to my preference, or at least serve as a surface that light from the video can bounce off as you would experience in real life. Can't imagine it would be hard make this an option. BigScreen does this really well.

    • dextrovix

      Same here, whilst I want a reasonably large screen view, I don't need to see anything else.

      It makes me think when it's a default, they want to orientate newer people to feel like they're in a familiar setting.

  • FrankB

    Would be great if coupled with access to 3d content from the likes of Disney like Vision Pro has.

  • ymo1965

    Give us the option as well to stream from pc. I cant be bothered faffing around copying movies via usb.

  • Adrian Meredith

    There's nothing new here… Would be great if they could find a way to allow 3rd party app access to content so if you buy it rent a film you can use the app off your choice…

  • Rayza

    it really needs 3D movies, i'd use my headset so much more and happily buy all of the movies