At Meta Connect 2025, we shared a few big new changes coming to Meta Horizon OS — including a rebuilt Immersive Home experience, improvements that make it easier to find your next favorite game or world, and enhancements that make a variety of apps work better. Meta Horizon OS v81 is here to bring all those updates to your headset, as well as quite a few more upgrades.

We’re bringing major improvements to Horizon Central, plus new functionality to make using apps and Passthrough even easier. And we’ve teamed up with Microsoft to bring the power of Windows 11 and Windows 365 to your Meta Quest headset through Mixed Reality Link.

Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed incremental rollouts of new experiences across VR and mobile. With v81, we’re excited to announce some changes that’ll make your time in Horizon even more fun.

New Updates to Immersive Home

With v81’s release, we’re introducing a new, more useful, and more customizable Immersive Home. Now you can make the Immersive Home space your own with the ability to pin your favorite windowed apps and to change different scenery options. We believe these changes will make the Immersive Home experience more expansive, interactive, and customizable.

Passthrough Improvements

For those times when you want to stay grounded in your physical space, we’re providing new features for the Passthrough Home experience. This includes apppinning, which lets you pin your favorite windowed apps in Passthrough. Just open the app while in Passthrough, position it in a convenient location and use the “Pin” option on the app’s control bar. And now, for the first time, you can place objects in Passthrough, starting with the avatar mirror to check out your look and the portal to Horizon Central for convenient access.

A New Horizon Central

In v81, we’re launching an updated version of Horizon Central — a completely new experience that features a larger, more detailed space, can support more people, and offers faster travel. Horizon Central will also feature a store where you can buy digital items for your avatar and an event Arena to attend your favorite concerts, comedy shows, and more.

Horizon Central’s new events space is immersive and realistic, where you’ll get the best seat in the house, whether you’re joining from across the street or across the globe. The Horizon Arena brings you closer to the action and your favorite artists, comedians, and sports teams for truly personal and unforgettable events.

Use Windows with Mixed Reality Link

Working with Microsoft, we’ve made Remote Desktop pairing with Mixed Reality Link available by default, opening up a new level of performance when using your desktop in VR with Windows 11 and Windows 365.

After the initial setup, Mixed Reality Link lets you access multiple high-resolution virtual monitors to boost your productivity, whether you’re at home, in the office, or on the go. You can use the fully immersive experience to block out distractions in your private workspace or opt for Passthrough to stay connected with the physical world around you.

Just install Mixed Reality Link on your Windows 11 PC, and then simply look at your keyboard and tap the “Pair” button to get started. Mixed Reality Link will also be available by default with new Windows 11 PCs in the coming months.

Shareable Links for Your VR Photos and Videos

You can now use the Meta Horizon mobile app to easily create shareable links for photos and videos you’ve captured on your Quest headset. With shareable links, you have a fast and convenient way to share your VR moments without needing to download or send large media files or eat up storage on your phone.

To create a shareable link, open your Gallery in the Meta Horizon mobile app, select the photo or video you want to share, tap “Share,” and then tap “Create Link.” Share your photo and video links with friends to show off your VR exploits!

See Your Surroundings During Immersive Experiences with Full Passthrough

Immersive experiences can transport us to new worlds, but sometimes, you need to quickly jump back to your physical environment. That’s where Full Passthrough comes in. When you’re in an immersive experience like Beat Saber, this new feature lets you quickly clear your view to stay aware of your surroundings. It’s easy to use, too — you can click “See physical surroundings” in Quick Settings, double-tap on the side of your headset, or click the Action Button on Meta Quest 3S to activate Full Passthrough. You can then resume your immersive experience whenever you’re ready.

Additional Windows, Additional Apps

Wish you could use more apps? Good news! With v81, you can now open more app windows at the same time, letting you use up to 12 apps at once.

Welcome Screen Improvements

For a lot of Quest owners, the user switcher is something they interact with every time they start up their headset. We’ve improved the user switcher in v81 with a refreshed look and feel. You can now add new accounts directly from this screen, eliminating the need to navigate through settings to the profile screen, so it’ll be faster and easier to set up multiple users on the same headset.

Universal Resize and Rescale

We’ve enhanced display management in v81 with two new features: “rescale” and “ratio locking.” Both will help make sure you’re getting the best experience and performance from your Quest headset.

• Rescale: You can enlarge applications without increasing how many pixels they include, so your content won’t have to update to accommodate the new size.
• Ratio Locking: You can lock the aspect ratios of displays, so you can be sure that whether you’re watching a movie, jumping into a virtual concert, or checking out other entertainment content, you’re seeing it the way it was meant to be seen.

There’s a lot coming in v81 — and if you’re looking for even more details, you can find them all in our official release notes.