Meta Is Done Supporting Your Quest 1 VR Headset

The original Oculus Quest headset was released in 2019, helping kick off standalone VR headsets as a viable platform for games and applications. However, Meta is about to end full support for the model that started it all.

Meta is sending emails to owners of the original Meta Quest (thanks Evan!), which was called the Oculus Quest at launch, informing them about future changes to software support. The company said, “we launched Quest 1 over four years ago and we are grateful to the Quest 1 community for pushing VR forward. As we look to the future, we remain committed to supporting the community of Quest 1 users and will continue to support the headset with a few changes.”

The original Quest will remain mostly functional, with continued access to apps and games, but Meta is done adding new features. Meta Horizon Home social features won’t work starting on March 5, 2023, so Quest 1 owners won’t be able to invite others to their home or visit other homes. Creating and joining parties will also break, and critical bug fixes and security patches will only continue until sometime in 2024.

Meta ending full support after less than five years is disappointing, especially if modern video game consoles are considered the baseline. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are still fully supported, even though both consoles were released in 2013 — making them 9 years old. The Quest is based on hardware developed for Android smartphones, most of which don’t receive major OS updates after 5 years, but many devices continue working beyond that point. Limiting new features to the newer headsets is understandable, but removing existing social features is more frustrating.

The Quest 2 is still Meta’s mainstream self-contained VR headset, though the Quest Pro was introduced last year as a new premium option. Both devices have newer and more powerful hardware than the original Quest.

We reached out to Meta for more information about software support, and the company said a new support article is available with all the details.