Meta is fixing three of the biggest Quest 3 annoyances with v66 update

The single biggest reason to buy a Meta Quest 3 over its predecessors is how it lets you bring the real world into view — but the VR headset’s still weird about your real-life hands, distorting the world around them. I always mess up the all-important “look at your palm and pinch your fingers to access the menu” gesture, too.

Now, Meta is fixing both of those issues. For starters, the new v66 update lets you tap a new button on your wrist to summon the menu!

“Wrist buttons” were already pioneered by a variety of VR games; now, you can use them for menus. Image: Meta

Sure looks like the distortion is vastly reduced, too:

Plus, Meta says it now has proper background audio for multitasking. “Now you can launch a 2D app like the Browser, play music or a video, and minimize the app without automatically pausing playback,” the company’s blog post reads.

The passthrough fixes are currently exclusive to the Quest 3 — and Meta says it’s rolling them out slowly and that they’re technically separate from v66 itself — but the wrist buttons and background audio are coming to the Quest 2 and Quest Pro as well. Meta is also adding support for “high-resolution” Netflix to its web browser, too.

The full changelog also mentions smaller updates like the ability to hide any app in your library for a cleaner view, the ability to auto-ID windows, doors, tables, couches, beds, and screens in your real-life room “to improve realism for MR games and apps,” and the ability to sync photos and videos from your headset to a web gallery.

Of course, the biggest Quest annoyance is how it’s almost always dead and / or needs updates when you return to it after a week or two away, but there may be progress on that front as well! Outspoken former Oculus CTO John Carmack says the idle power drain seems to be improving, and there’s a new sleep mode option in the press-and-hold power button menu that can let the Quest update in the background — as long as you keep it plugged into power.

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