The Meta Quest 3 headset has a lying down mode now

Thanks to the latest software update for the Meta Quest 3, Meta’s newest headset now has the lying down mode that came to the Quest 2 and Pro headsets last month. A Meta community post says the update began rolling out to the Quest headsets on Monday.

To try it out, go to Settings > Experimental and toggle Use Apps While Lying Down. This should be a nice feature for when you just want to get prone and watch a movie — something the much more expensive Apple Vision Pro could do at launch. But it’s also a boon for those who have health problems and aren’t able to stay upright for long periods of time while using their Quest device. The feature was in the v53 software beta last year but was removed before the update rolled out.

In addition to letting users lay prone while they’re jacked in, Meta says it has improved passthrough for the Quest 3. The company says it optimized its passthrough video to make “perceived resolution” better — basically, fine-grained text like that on a smartphone should be more legible. The company says it’s also improved color, exposure, contrast, and dynamic range, so what you see will match real-world colors better, and it says low-light passthrough is less grainy with the update.

The Quest 3 also now supports external microphones through the headset’s USB-C port and should support non-USB-C mics with adapters. To use it, users will need to switch by going to Settings > Experimental and choosing the microphone there.

Finally, for all headsets, Meta’s update will now let streamers using the Meta Quest app keep their streams going when they take their headset off, rather than the screen going black. The company also says it’s testing a feature in Horizon Worlds that will let users join friends who are sharing their location and in a public world directly from the People app in the universal menu.

Again, the update only started rolling out yesterday — so if you don’t have it quite yet, hold your virtual horses because it’s on its way.