Community Manager

Updates to Your Meta Quest Experience in 2026

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
March 17, 2026
293 replies
45578 views

Earlier this year, we shared an update on our renewed focus for VR and Horizon. We are separating the two platforms so each can grow with greater focus, and the Horizon Worlds platform will become a mobile-only experience. This separation will extend across our ecosystem, including our mobile app. To support this vision, we are making the following changes to streamline your Quest experience throughout 2026.

Meta Horizon Worlds: By March 31, 2026, Horizon Worlds and Events will no longer appear in the Store on Quest. Also, Horizon Central, Events Arena, Kaiju, and Bobber Bay worlds will no longer be available in VR. You can still jump into your other favorite worlds in VR until June 15, 2026, after which the Horizon Worlds app will be removed from Quest, and Worlds will no longer be available in VR. After June 15, you can jump into all your favorite mobile-optimized worlds on the Meta Horizon mobile app.
Meta Horizon Hyperscape Capture (Beta): By March 24, 2026, viewing Hyperscape captures is moving out of Horizon Worlds. Your existing captures will remain viewable within the Hyperscape Capture (Beta) app and the companion Preview app, which are available in your Quest app library. You can continue capturing new Hyperscapes, but sharing, inviting, and co-experiencing Hyperscapes with others will no longer be supported.
Meta Horizon Plus (MH+) Perks: By March 31, 2026, Horizon-specific perks — including Meta Credits, Digital Clothing, Avatars and In-World Purchases — will be removed from the subscription. Your core MH+ gaming benefits and monthly games will not be affected.

We continue to invest in making your Quest experience better — recent updates have brought new features like Surface Keyboard and Touchpad, customizable app and window positioning, and we're continuing to roll out Navigator, our modernized interface, to more users.

outdated news. meta ceo says existing worlds

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Nova2040

Up and Coming

They have completely lost their trust in Meta with this. It was the same back then with Sony PlayStation Home. I won’t invest another cent. Especially now, I had the impression that it was getting more and more crowded with people having fun.

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Dragginlord

New Participant

Hoping that this means we will be able to uninstall the Worlds bloatware from our headsets. Storage is a premium on most headsets and the gigs of storage all of the Worlds apps take up are money down the toilet. This will be great news if/when horizon worlds are removed from the OS!💞

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Maccyb123

Honored Contributor

Dragginlord I believe that the bloatware will be removed. Some worlds will be available at least for some time, for those who want it. But I think you will have to choose to keep it. I think we can look forward to a cleaner game oriented environment and hopefully free up some resources too. 🤞

steve40

Honored Contributor

Meta's CEO announced existing Worlds will now be kept in VR. We just won't get any new ones.

Meta CTO announces Horizon Worlds is staying on VR for existing games : r/OculusQuest

Choleni

Honored Contributor

Yes, it's sad that Meta doesn't update the announcement.☹️

I posted this already a few days ago and several times...... but most people read only the announcement and not every single comment in this thread.

Updates to Your Meta Quest Experience in 2026 | Meta Community Forums - 1369435

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IamMatch

Participant

"March 31, 2026, Horizon Worlds and Events will no longer appear in the Store on Quest. Also, Horizon Central, Events Arena, Kaiju, and Bobber Bay worlds will no longer be available in VR. You can still jump into your other favorite worlds in VR until June 15, 2026, after which the Horizon Worlds app will be removed from Quest, and Worlds will no longer be available in VR. After June 15, you can jump into all your favorite mobile-optimized worlds on the Meta Horizon mobile app."

Ok, let's see: they've changed names to our experiences- "Horizon Central" is where you land when you enter with "Worlds" being seperate (you can't go to "Worlds" from there anymore as of now.
"Worlds" is what we can use until June 15th on the Oculus?! The only thing remaining from them will be games or VR worlds on Mobile?!
So, they're downsizing our experience: like a bait and switch? Isn't that very VR experience WHY we bought the Oculus? Sure for games too- but, every ad they gave us had worlds and communities and a personal experience outside of just gaming: and now THAT's gonna be gone?!

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LittleMidge

New Participant

Meta worlds make so much more sense in VR. The problem is the games don't play well and feel very buggy (at least in my experience). They are fine if you are really bored and just want something simple, but a part from that, they did nothing for me. The only real reason I've attempted them is because you can get the avatar things for messages when completing quests -- but often I use my mobile to complete these and it's so painful to do because the controls are terrible, they often glitch, and they are extremely basic. I would much rather Meta completely scrap Horizon Worlds and invest that in better VR experiences and games.
I also don't get why they are saying they are separating VR from Horizon when Horizon is the recently renamed OS -- just comes across that no one at Meta has a clue what they are doing...sounds like someone is like "wouldn't this be cool..." and everyone is afraid to say "no" and so they do something on a whim and then realise theyve just wasted a bunch of time, money, and effort.

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Redwizardmatt

Participant

Im disabled. I use my vr headset specifically to have the kinds of interactions I cant have in real life. Meta quest worlds allows me to go out, meet new people, explore, watch a concert or two, and generally feel less disabled. For people like me horizon worlds is the only reason to own your headset. Just saying.

Choleni

Honored Contributor

Redwizardmatt Meta really should update this announcment...... 🙄

They changed their mind. .... already excisting worlds remains in vr. So, you can still visit and enjoy them.🙂

Updates to Your Meta Quest Experience in 2026 | Meta Community Forums - 1369435

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Redwizardmatt

Participant

Yeah, I read that but I really dont trust it. They are closing studios, pulling funding, and only promised to temporarily postpone the closure of Worlds. Forseeable future doesnt give me a great deal of hope. I get out of the house less than once a month. Ive had my headset for a year now and its been life changing. Im not the only disabled person I know who uses it for this purpose. We actually make up a decent chunk of the people who regularly use Worlds, and Id bet no one at Meta even knows or cares about that or us. VR games cant replace the social connection or agency that Horizon Worlds provided. No new worlds, no new updates, fewer people will be using them, and many of the worlds will just fall off. This is very bad news for the disabled and chronically ill community. Period. Meta failed to turn the Metaverse into a replacement for the office, but succeeded in providing agency to people who are disabled. Letting people in wheel chairs go for walks with their friends. Letting people who have never been physically able to attend a concert see one with their friends. You cant fathom what this meant to us, or how skeptical we are that itll stick around or continue. It certainly wont grow or evolve now. This is terrible.

ashmanmedia

Up and Coming

I mean I hear it from everyone currently in the top worlds to loose VR horizons worlds if awful.

They would pay $10 per month instead of Netflix.

This metaVERSE is addicting and adults enjoy it enuf to pay for it.

Listen to us adult users who matter - u made something that isn’t Fortnite. Minecraft. This isn’t a game it’s reality virtual? Stop chasing silly money $ clothes skins.

Nova2040

Up and Coming

I have to say I’m very disappointed with this decision. The mobile version does not interest me at all — for me, Horizon Worlds has always been about the VR experience, and that is exactly where its appeal lies.From my perspective, this move does not align in any way with Meta’s previous philosophy, which strongly focused on building and supporting virtual reality. Especially recently, I had the clear impression that more and more people were spending time in VR, the community was growing, and people were genuinely enjoying themselves.That’s why it is so hard to understand why such a core part is now being removed from VR. For users like me, this takes away an essential part of what made Horizon what it was.

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Redwizardmatt

Participant

Well, yeah. I can tell you what happened. Meta had sales and profits quotas they wanted to make for the year. They failed. VR has cost Meta billions because they were gambling on early investor marketshare. They wanted to do what Facebook did. What Google did. Be the first product of its kind in a new space. So they spent. And they spent. And they spent. And not enough people bought their VR headsets. So they marketed them to businessess. And that didnt work. They market them to the military. And they kept losing money. All of a sudden Valve comes out with a headset that might turn a profit, so they announce a delay in the development of the Quest 4. Either to copy the Steam headset, or to scrap the VR department entirely. I dont think theyve decided which option to take yet. Smart betting money would be to wait and watch how the Steam headset sells. If it makes or loses money. If it makes money, copy it shamelessly but with higher specs. If it loses money, get out of VR entirely.

Thats my guess based on whats happening in VR news. Thing is, thats the sort of thing that kills user install base. Ive owned my headset for a year. It cost me 500$. I can promise you if they scrap their VR programs shortly after I invested in them I wont be engaging with them as a company ever again. Again, Im disabled. 500$ is my entire income for a month. For me a bad investment like that isnt something I would forget in this or any decade. And I can promise you that in this time of massive economic strife, Im not the only one who feels a 500$ investment entitles me to what was promised when I made the purchase.

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Bubberne

Participant

This announcement is now outdated because Meta has decided to leave Horizon Worlds intact (i.e. not make it a mobile-only platform), but just refrain from updating or investing in its further development. So for people who have been using it regularly, those beloved Worlds will still be accessible.

(Personally, I didn't use Horizon Worlds much, only sometimes -- but when I did, it was fun. For example, I would meet up there with other family members who live on the other side of the globe, for some virtual fun. Hyperscape was also a favourite, as we'd meet up in spaces I'd scanned. I was actually sad to hear the initial Meta decision to abandon it entirely on the Quest, and move to mobile-only. It felt so needlessly drastic).

So now, here we are. I'm actually impressed that Meta did such a quick reversal, and came here to say that. I'm glad they are keeping both, I hope it lasts.

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Redwizardmatt

Participant

Oh, Im aware that they decided to keep the service online for a little while longer, and that they very clearly arent willing to promise anything more specific than that, and that its losing all support and thus is likely to develop legacy hardware bugs along with losing the majority of its userbase as a result of the end to new content.

Am I pleased they arent canning it right here and right now? Yes. Do I see this as a slow death of something that I use as a disability accessability service that I paid 500$ to be able to access less than a year ago? Also yes. I was talking my videogame programmer friend into buying herself a headset and building worlds with me. Now Meta loses that sale, and now *I* dont get to build new spaces to share with the people I love. This only sounds like good news to people not directly impacted by it my friend. Its still bad news. Its just slightly less bad news than it was originally.

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VRAdventures294335

Participant

I'll believe that when I see it announced in writing

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