Is Meta prepping the Quest 3 for augments? These UI update plans suggest so

Like it or not, the Vision Pro — both in announcement and in release — had a major impact. Sure, Meta isn’t directly targeted, because it’s aiming at gamers, while Apple has its eye on productivity geeks, but one thing for sure: people now know that MR is awesome.

And they want more, regardless of device, which is only natural. But here’s the kicker: the Quest 3 still doesn’t have native MR productivity features — or augments — even though they were showcased during the headset’s release event and scheduled for a release “sometime in 2024”.

Oh, and if you’ve forgotten what augments are: these are basically mixed-reality widgets that allow you to place AR elements in your real world, such as virtual sticky notes on your fridge. Neat, huh?

While I wish that this piece could be the “Augments are out, install the update!” news story that we’re all waiting for, it’s not. What it is, though, is a bit of info coming from Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth from — you’ve guessed it! — an Instagram AMA. Here’s what Andrew said:



So, the Quest 3’s UI is getting some fancy UI redesigns, huh? Well, while Bosworth isn’t going into too much detail about the style or purpose of this revamp, I have a theory. I think that “enabling a richer environment” is rather directly linked to the expected release of augments for the Quest 3.

Hear me out: the Quest 3’s UI isn’t bad, per say, but some UI elements need to make sense outside of context too. Such as, for example, when you pop them out to place them on your wall, or desk or fridge. And in order for that to happen in a consistent way in MR, some tweaking might be required.

To further my crazy conspiracy theory, I’d like to bring up this post, where Meta’s VP of VR directly mentions the words “interaction” and “room” in the same sentence:


So, does this mean that augments are coming? For sure! Does it mean that the feature is going to be released soon, though? I doubt it, considering that both Meta representatives have refrained from sharing a detailed deadline. But hey: if this much effort is going into polish for these things, at least we can hope that they are going to be worth the wait, right?