- Horizon Feed is being sunset by Meta
- The response is mixed as it’s being replace by Navigator
- Some users wonder if this is a sign of more Horizon-related closures
Your Meta Quest 3 is getting a UI overhaul, again – and this might be an upgrade VR users will appreciate.
Currently, when you boot up your headset your default landing experience – the very first screen you see – would be the Horizon Feed. This social window highlights popular Horizon Worlds, apps, and what your contacts are up to; and it’s a window that I and many other users instantly close, so that we can get into the actual games and content we want to access.
So Meta has announced that, starting with update v85, players will instead boot straight into the Navigator. This is the floating UI Meta adopted last year, which puts a greater emphasis on mixed reality with simpler floating icons, as well as a simple bar for swapping between your library, home, social contacts and the app store.
It’s not perfect, but Navigator is generally a much more useful intro screen that Horizon Feed, so hopefully this is an update most users will appreciate – even if it’s not a major one.
Meta also announced that it will be be sunsetting the Horizon Feed entirely with this update.
People have generally not been a fan of this constant extra step of needing to close Horizon Feed when they use their headset.
This post from last year is literally titled “Tired of closing Horizon Feed + People window, every time on startup”, while another is asking for advice on how to “Remove Horizon Feed from Menu”.
It seems Meta is well aware of how little users want to engage with Horizon Feed, as in its announcement it said of the feature that “it historically has not driven strong entitlement conversion”; essentially, people generally don’t access the worlds or games it shows through the feed itself.
Some people are now hoping Meta will take things a step further, replying to the change saying “That makes me hopeful that one day, the doomed Horizon ecosystem goes away entirely. The Quest would be such a better device without it.”
Following the recent news of Meta shutting down studios as it shifts focus away from VR to its glasses, this prospect does seem more likely, although, even as someone who hasn’t been the most impressed by its metaverse efforts thus far, I’m worried that the end of Horizon ecosystem might be joined by a much wider Quest demise – something I don’t want, even if for now I’m pinning my VR hopes on the Steam Frame.
It’s a weird time in the world of VR, but this Horizon Feed news does at least start to return things to a state of normalcy. When we don’t know what will happen next, we can at least count on Meta to make yet another UI change.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
