The brand new Horizon OS ‘Navigator’ system UI lastly rolled out to all Quest headsets, greater than a yr after Meta started publicly testing it.
For the reason that launch of Oculus Go in 2018, Meta’s standalone VR working system has seen quite a few visible modifications, however the basic interface structure remained primarily the identical.
You had a floating horizontal menu bar barely under you, referred to as the Common Menu, displaying the time and your gadget battery ranges on the left, and a mix of shortcuts to pinned and just lately launched apps on the appropriate. Virtually all working system interfaces, together with core options just like the app Library, Fast Settings, and Notifications, opened as common 2D home windows, handled like some other, that means any common 2D app would trigger these core interfaces to shift round.
Think about in case your telephone’s app library, or management middle, or the Home windows Begin Menu, was simply one other windowed app. That is how Meta’s XR working system used to work.
Then, in Might final yr, Meta began a really sluggish rollout of a full Horizon OS UI overhaul, referred to as ‘Navigator’, which strikes the primary system interfaces like Library, Fast Settings, Notifications and Digital camera into a brand new massive overlay that seems over each immersive and 2D apps.
With Navigator, system interfaces not shift round when opening different home windows, and it is faster to launch new apps as a result of the library is the default UI panel.
Navigator has gone via quite a few refinements since its tough preliminary model. For instance, it initially had a murky grey background with an oval form that severely obscured your view of what was behind it, which simply did not look good, and this was changed by merely dimming the background.
The newest iteration of the Meta Horizon OS Navigator UI.
Navigator additionally launched with each Apps and Horizon Worlds listed within the central launcher interface, and and not using a Buddies listing interface.
In October, Meta added a separate Worlds tab, that means the App library was not polluted with Horizon Worlds. After which earlier this yr, following the announcement that Horizon Worlds is transferring away from VR, Meta eliminated the Worlds tab from Navigator totally.
Meta additionally removed Horizon Feed, the default 2D app that used to launch while you cold-booted your Quest headset, that means that Quest headsets now boot straight right into a grid of your apps, simply as you count on a cell computing gadget to do.
The 7 tabs of the Horizon OS Navigator, as of June 2026, now stand as:
- You: permits you to swap customers and set your on-line standing, and in addition has shortcuts to edit your avatar and profile.
- Notifications
- Folks: a grid of your folks, linking to their profiles.
- App Library
- Fast Controls: brightness, quantity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Screenshots/Recording, Journey Mode, and different core settings & toggles.
- Present/Cover Home windows
- Toggle between Passthrough & VR Residence
And within the App Library, now you can reposition the app icons the place you need them, and create folders to arrange them, simply as you possibly can on just about some other main shopper working system.
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Arguably, the most important remaining flaw of Navigator is that it nonetheless would not absolutely incorporate all system-level options as a part of the overlay. Within the above bullets, by “shortcuts to” I imply that it opens an everyday 2D window straight out of the earlier Horizon OS interface paradigm. With all the identical points. It is considerably shocking to see Meta roll Navigator out extensively earlier than fixing this. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless a web enchancment in comparison with what got here earlier than.
I am actively writing on UploadVR once more, and this text is one in a sequence of “catch up” items the place I report on a number of the fascinating issues which were occurring within the trade in latest months. And sure, VR Obtain is coming again quickly!
