Meta’s frequent Horizon OS updates are coming at the price of efficiency points and bugs for builders.
Quest headsets arguably get new options, enhancements, and adjustments at a better tempo than another client tech system. Final 12 months alone, for instance, Meta overhauled how Horizon OS handles 2D apps to permit free positioning and conserving them open inside apps, delivered vital upgrades to Quest 3’s passthrough and hand monitoring, and made dozens of different adjustments.
These new Horizon OS variations arrive virtually each month, in stark distinction to Apple and Google’s technique of transport most new options in yearly releases. And this appears to be coming at a price.
Efficiency Regression
On an inner Meta problem monitoring discussion board for choose builders of profitable retailer apps, the present most upvoted problem describes how the body price in apps has been steadily declining with every working system launch.
The difficulty report consists of screenshots of common FPS logs documenting this decline, which started with v72 and has continued to worsen by means of v74, v76, and the pre-release builds of v77.
The difficulty has a big variety of upvotes in comparison with the typical problem, but has seen no response from Meta.
Standalone VR and combined actuality builders already must put vital effort in to optimize their apps to run properly on cellular chipsets, and system-level efficiency regression basically erases a few of this difficult work.
Puzzling Battery Saver Change
One other problem emerged by means of an intentional however misguided choice from Meta.
Quest 3 & 3S provide a Battery Saver toggle of their settings. Since its debut on the launch of Quest 3, this function capped the refresh price to 72Hz, compelled on fastened foveated rendering, and diminished the brightness to 50%.
However since v76, Meta silently modified the conduct of Battery Saver to as an alternative power the refresh price to 90Hz however cap the app body price to 45FPS. This, to be clear, occurs no matter whether or not or not the app makes use of Software SpaceWarp. Within the case that an app would not use AppSW, this causes a distracting double-imaging judder that makes many individuals really feel sick, and these clients usually blame the developer of the app.
This variation to Battery Saver was not communicated to both builders or customers, and Meta has now instructed builders that it is reverting the change, although as of the time of writing it nonetheless stays.
Retailer Platform Bugs
Efficiency regression and the Battery Saver change are removed from the one points builders are encountering on Quest.
In addition to the well-known SDK and Quest Hyperlink points which have plagued Quest improvement for years, the shop backend is a continuing supply of frustration.
Meta Quest backend is so cooked. For a bunch that supposedly runs a number of billion+ consumer apps the developer tech is noticeably decaying.
The metrics typically simply go lacking for every week. We spend hours combating MQDH and the shop a day.
Not a welcoming ecosystem @boztank
— Andrew Eiche (@buddingmonkey) Could 11, 2025
Analytics for instance usually merely disappear, with the CEO of the studio behind Job Simulator and Dimensional Double Shift publicly describing the developer tech as “noticeably decaying”.
One other problem builders have confronted is gamers instantly shedding entry to bought DLCs. This, as you’d anticipate, results in indignant assist messages and emails to builders, who do not understand this can be a downside on Meta’s aspect. The one resolution appears to be manufacturing facility resetting the headset, a troublesome ask to place it mildly.
At Meta Join 2024, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth apologized to builders for the “fixed state of change” concerned in constructing for Quest, whereas then VP of VR/MR Mark Rabkin promised “a secure period”.
“It may be extremely messy, and we all know it has been a tricky journey for builders over the past couple of years”, Bosworth stated.
Bosworth’s apology to builders.
Bosworth and Rabkin had been largely referring to shifting APIs, SDKs, and featuresets, and a few builders do recognize the consolidation on these points. However what all builders need now could be extra give attention to software program and infrastructure high quality; absolutely purposeful instruments and providers that they’ll depend on, and speedy fixes when points do inevitably crop up.
