The Quest 3 and its siblings are losing Chromecast support and fans hate it. Why?

If you’ve checked out our AR/VR section recently, you’ve surely noticed a lot of praise for the Quest 3. And I’ll be upfront: it’s warranted, as Meta’s latest headset is surely one of the best VR headsets around, thanks to its powerful hardware and rich feature set, which finally includes proper mixed-reality capabilities.

But a solid launch doesn’t always translate into a successful product in the long run, which — luckily! — doesn’t seem to be an issue for the Quest 3. Meta has been doing a fantastic job with supporting the headset with regular updates that introduce entirely new features — such as full body tracking without the need for any external trackers: a feat first of its kind — with more promised to come in 2024.

That being said, we can’t pretend that it’s all sunshine and rainbows. Being the “best as of now” doesn’t exactly equal being perfect. But while striving for perfection is a bit too utopic for my taste, I can certainly say that regression isn’t a good look for anyone or anything.

And that’s exactly how Meta’s decision to take away support for Chromecast from it’s headsets feels.



You don’t seem like the type of person that has lived under a rock for the past decade or so, so I’m pretty sure that you know what a Chromecast is: a thing you stick into your TV to make it smarter, and via which you can stream content wirelessly to said TV. Neat!

And that last bit is very important for VR headsets like the Quest series, because the series’ standalone mode isn’t exactly inclusive. I mean, if one of my friends is playing Beat Saber, I’d like to spectate the action and see what they're doing in VR, not just in real life, right? 

Hence: casting gameplay to a TV via Chromecast is really useful for the Quest line in a social sense. So it kind of sucks that Meta has decided to take it away, even if the term the company is using is "limiting support", whatever that means.

Now, users that want to project what they are seeing through a Quest headset can still do that, but that would involve the notorious Quest app for mobile. So basically, if you want to stream wirelessly, your options are as follows:

• Hook your Quest headset to a PC and stream the computer’s feed to your TV
• Stream your Quest’s feed onto your phone and then mirror that to your TV

Granted, there is a silver lining: this solution does include a broader range of devices and it allows some users to capture screenshots or videos from headsets like the Quest 3 more easily. But what percentage of all Quest users even have such needs? Food for thought.

Because, here’s the thing: the “new” process isn’t really new. This has been an option basically since forever, yet people chose to use Chromecast instead. Why? Well, primarily because it doesn’t involve so many steps. And with such a complicated workflow, involving at least two types of streams, lag and latency is surely going to be an issue for some.

So, the bottom line is that Meta has just decided to take away Chromecast, as no real alternative has been introduced for the time being. And that’s exactly how some online users felt when they saw the news: