Meta has offered a method for Quest users to watch their personal content, but it involves navigating a file system and viewing on a small screen—a far cry from the immersive experience of a home theater. Now, the company is teasing something more engaging.
Mark Rabkin, who heads Horizon OS and Quest initiatives, recently revealed in an X post that Meta is exploring the creation of a home theater environment within Horizon OS. This operating system not only powers Quest devices but is also set to run on various third-party headsets soon.
In response to queries about why a native option isn’t already available, Rabkin mentioned that the team is actively “[w]orking on all that, experimenting with lighting and other effects to see what’s best. Also trying to figure out awesome sound.”
Meta isn’t new to developing theater environments. Back in 2014, Meta—then known as Facebook/Oculus—introduced Oculus Cinema for Samsung Gear VR, which evolved into Oculus Video for both Gear VR and Rift. This provided users with a more unified way to watch personal content and offered movie rentals for on-device viewing. Near the end of 2015, Oculus Social emerged, supporting up to five users to gather and watch Twitch and Vimeo streams in different virtual theaters.
To avoid dwelling on the past, it’s worth mentioning that Meta’s latest effort came with Horizon Home on Quest, updated in 2021. This update allowed multiple users to gather in your home space for shared experiences like watching videos or launching VR apps together. However, it missed several features expected from a dedicated home theater app, such as customizable environments or advanced playback control.
Despite the variety of content available, all these apps have historically placed hurdles between users and traditional content. This drove users to more open alternatives like Bigscreen and Skybox, as well as dedicated platforms like Prime Video, YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix.
Meta’s upcoming foray into a theater environment might not consolidate these fragmented apps under one roof. Still, introducing a built-in, user-friendly way to watch personal content immersively could be enough to capture users’ interest.
