Quest v65 Lets You View Panoramas Captured By Your iPhone & Brings Passthrou...

The Meta Quest v65 system software update is starting to roll out.

The Quest v65 update lets you easily view panoramas captured by your iPhone, brings passthrough to all system UI panels, lets any iPhone upload spatial videos, and prevents hand tracking from interfering with mouse and keyboard usage.

As always, keep in mind that Quest system software updates "roll out" gradually, so it may take days or even weeks for your headset to get the Quest v65 update.

View Panoramas From Your iPhone

Since v62 the Meta Quest iOS app has let iPhone 15 Pro owners upload 3D 'spatial videos' to show up in the headset for playback. With v65 any iPhone model can now do this, letting you for example upload spatial videos sent to you by iPhone 15 Pro owners or downloaded from Safari.

Additionally, v65 allows any iPhone to upload panoramas. Like with spatial videos, you'll then find them in the Files app inside the headset. Meta claims "it’s almost like you’re there again, taking in the sights".

Viewing iPhone-captured panoramas is a key use case of Apple Vision Pro.

Viewing iPhone-captured panoramas is a key use case of Apple Vision Pro, so Meta is likely hoping making this easy on Quest will make for yet another reason for iPhone users to buy one instead of Apple's own much more expensive headset.

There's no word on the feature supporting Android phones.

Passthrough Throughout The System UI

Quest headsets have been able to use passthrough instead of a virtual home environment since a year after the original Quest launched. But some system interfaces like the lock screen and power-off menu always showed a VR void.

The v65 update brings passthrough to these interfaces, which Meta says enables you to "remain entirely in MR from the moment you power on Meta Quest 3 until you put it down again".

Mouse & Keyboard Improvements

Finally, v65 reduces accidental activations of hand tracking gestures when using a physical mouse & keyboard. We've found this to be a significant problem when trying to use Quest for productivity in the past.

Meta isn't going into specifics about how it achieved this, but says it should work regardless of whether the keyboard is connected to the headset itself, meaning the improvement also applies when using a PC via Remote Display.