Headspace Launches Immersive Mindfulness and Meditation App, ‘Headspace XR’

With a mission to improve access to lifelong mental health support, Headspace has had an impact on over 100 million people’s lives across 200 countries and regions around the world. And whether you want to move, play, meditate, or just explore with friends, you’re in luck: Headspace XR is now available on Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro. And if you don’t have a Meta Quest 3 yet, we’ve got you covered!

Headspace XR incorporates both fully immersive VR and mixed reality experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds. Hand tracking lets you jump in with intuitive, natural interactions, or you can opt for controllers and the added benefit of haptic feedback.

We sat down with Headspace Vice President of Content Creation Sara Cohen to learn more.

Sara Cohen: I worked for over a decade in the “glamorous” world of reality television. I began my career at MTV. I worked there for about six years on shows like 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, Ridiculousness, and Real World. And I really got a taste of working on a show that made an impact with 16 and Pregnant, which had been credited with helping to lower the rate of teenage pregnancy.

That was my first time working on something where I said, “Oh, I can actually create content that could help change people’s lives.”

After several years spent working in the entertainment industry, I realized I wanted to create more content that could have an impact on people’s lives. Starting from those MTV days and having a taste on 16 and Pregnant, I said to myself, “I want to do more of that. How can I work for a company that is mission-driven to make an impact on people’s lives?” And that’s what led me to Headspace. Actually, a former colleague who’s my boss, Morgan Selzer, our Chief Content & Studios Officer, was actually my first boss at MTV when I was an intern in college.

SC: Our paths go way back, and I was really excited about joining Headspace, whose mission at the time was to improve the health and happiness of the world. And that’s exactly what I wanted to do.

My current role is VP of Content Creation, and I oversee the development, creation, and execution of all the content that’s inside the app, as well as all of our off-platform opportunities. So we’re out pitching TV and film projects. We have podcasts that live both in the app and off the app, everywhere people consume podcasts, and then opportunities like this one with Meta that I got to oversee. It’s been a big transition going from the entertainment industry to tech and working now in heath and wellness, but I’m really excited about that. It’s been extremely fulfilling.

SC: Meta actually reached out to ask us what Headspace could look like in the world of VR. And we went back with a pretty basic pitch: meditating in beautiful locations. Meta pushed us a bit further and said, “We really want to do something spectacular here. How about partnering with a VR production company—a company that really does this, that could work with you and your brand on bringing Headspace to life in this immersive world?”

With that push from Meta, we met with three different VR companies and we landed on Nexus Studios. We actually had had a prior relationship with them. They did a lot of the first animations that ever existed within the Headspace product. And they really understood the brand, the brand ethos. And a lot of people who work at Nexus happen to use the Headspace product, so they really got what we were looking for and going for. And Meta seemed to be big fans of Nexus’s too. So we worked with Nexus to develop what we had called at the time the Mindful Metaverse.

We pitched back to Meta this entire immersive world that was filled with different mindful experiences. Meta was really excited about the opportunity, and we got the green light to move forward.

SC: Honestly, it’s been incredible. Meta has been extraordinarily supportive every step of the way.

I think this partnership with Reality Labs showcases the determination on Meta’s side. By partnering with a global brand like Headspace, a mental health platform, Meta is showing its commitment to show up and take care of people in the world of VR and XR.

We’re navigating a world that is so new, and being able to have that leadership on a world that Meta has obviously gone into head-first in terms of VR and XR, it’s been great to receive their guidance as well as just work with them really collaboratively to bring this to life.

SC: That’s a good question. When we say, “lifelong mental health support,” we mean that we want to be with people every step of the way, right from the very beginning of their mental health journey all the way through their lifetime. So many people are using the Meta Quest Platform, so many young people in particular, and we know some of those people are struggling.

For us, it was really important to show up, and we always use the phrase, “Meet people exactly where they are.” We know that not everyone’s going to download or buy our Headspace app. So it’s important for us as a brand to show up where people are on their mental health journeys and be able to provide them with tools and resources.

Diving into the VR/MR world is a way for us to say that we will innovate and continue innovating and show up in spaces that people might not even expect—because that’s exactly where some people need it the most. And it also helps to elevate the practice: to deepen how you experience mindfulness and how you take care of your mental health.

Being able to do it, whether it’s through VR in a fully immersive world or by doing something with MR, you’re able to hopefully take those tools once your headset is off and apply them to your everyday life.

SC: People can expect a fully immersive world that they can escape to, either alone or with friends, to really be able to check in with how they’re feeling, how their friends are feeling, and engage in experiences that are completely customized to meet them exactly in those feelings, exactly where they are in that moment. All the experiences are designed to help people feel more energized, to help them focus, to help them wind down or relax.

And honestly, sometimes it’s just about play. There are five pillars of mindfulness that Headspace has always been known for, and those five pillars are meditate, move, eat, sleep, and play. And quite frankly, there’s only one way to fully immerse yourself in play, and that’s in VR.

Within Headspace XR, we can really take people on the journey of play, which allows them to let go—to discover that inner child that we often forget about and let loose and be free again, either by themselves or with a group of people that they enjoy spending time with in this space.

For fans of the mobile app, I would say that this experience can help further deepen and elevate their mindfulness practice. There are a variety of techniques that we’re aware of with mindfulness and meditation, from body scans to visualizations. And for some people, some of those can be really challenging in just purely audio format. Being able to truly immerse people with visuals and audio can really help people be able to do some of these exercises that they may have found challenging in the past.

SC: It’s actually been so fun to be able to demo the app. I think the first two words that really come to mind are surprise and delight. People make a lot of assumptions when they’re putting on the headset to come into a mindfulness or meditation product. And I think they’re sort of blown away by the fact that they’re in an entire world that’s there for their adventure and exploration.

Our premier experience, Power Up, is a mindful movement experience—think sort of Beat Saber meets Tai Chi—and people are surprised by that too, of being able to move their bodies in a way that feels incredibly energizing.

I’ve seen people literally lay down in the headset and move all around, stretching their bodies in so many different ways—standing up and playing, sitting down and playing. People love the fact that they don’t have to use controllers either, so it can be a really fun hands-free experience. And it supports controllers for people who do want to use them.

With Meta, we’ve discussed it a lot. There are so many people who are very comfortable with hand tracking and love that. Personally, I love the haptics you get in Headspace XR from having the controllers on—getting that feedback as you take different breaths in some of the exercises or as you go through the Power Up experience. It connects you with the game and can be really elevating. We wanted to be able to meet people in all their preferences that they might have going into this world.

SC: We’ve been developing this app for over two years, and we’re super excited to see how people will interact with the depth of content we’ve created in each of the experiences. We’re really excited to learn and see how they’re going to use the app, what are going to be their favorite spots to hang out in, and how they utilize it alongside their mental health journeys. So stay tuned for more information on future content and features.

SC: Such a good question, and it’s exactly why we dove in head-first into this space. When I think about VR, one of the biggest industries and where it’s had so much success is the gaming world. But VR isn’t just about gaming anymore, right? And we’ve seen obviously tremendous growth in the fitness and wellness space.

And we have to make sure with every advance in technology, in every space, that we’re continuing to innovate and continuing to show up with ways to help people with these advances in technology. In everything from AI to Quest headsets, how are we at Headspace showing up in these spaces to be able to help people with these technologies and help people take care of themselves?

Being able to use tools like VR and MR, to fully immerse yourself in mindful experiences that you can then bring into your everyday life, and to build healthy habits in headsets that can carry on with you throughout your day should hopefully help enhance people’s well-being in an entirely new way. To me, it’s really about expanding the world of VR and showcasing all the benefits it can have on your life.

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SC: The social aspect of this app is incredibly important to us. In a study conducted by Gallup and Meta, 27% of Gen Z reported feeling very or fairly lonely, which is alarming. And the fact that this generation is feeling anxious and stressed and sad and lonely, to me, means we need to help them to know that they are not alone. We want Headspace XR to be the place you go with your friends to check in with yourself, to actually spend time checking in with each other and come out feeling better.

SC: I would just say come and explore Headspace XR. It truly is a playground for your mind. Come be surprised and be delighted.