The Meta Quest smartphone app gets a new name and look
Meta renames the Meta Quest smartphone app and gives it a new, controversial design.
The Meta Quest smartphone app will be renamed "Meta Horizon" this week and will get a new look, including a light mode.
In the new version, Meta puts more emphasis on the social aspect and introduces a new tab for avatar customization. In addition, you can now complete quests for Meta Horizon Worlds directly in the app to unlock exclusive avatar styles, items and emotes.
Meta's metaverse platform will launch in many new countries in the coming months and its virtual worlds have recently become accessible via smartphone app and browser (in countries where Horizon Worlds is available), eliminating the need for a Quest headset.
New strategy, many rebrands
Meta announced in April that it would open up its VR ecosystem and license the Meta Quest operating system to select OEMs (Asus, Lenovo). With this change in strategy, the operating system was renamed Meta Horizon OS in reference to Meta's Metaverse platform.
At the time, Meta also announced that the "Meta Quest Store" would soon be renamed the "Meta Horizon Store" and the "Meta Quest" smartphone app would soon be renamed the "Meta Horizon". There will be more confusing rebrandings like this, with the Quest brand being dropped in favor of Horizon.
The new light mode. | Image: Meta
Meta's vision is that in the future there will be a greater variety of headsets running on Meta Horizon OS, with Horizon serving as the unifying social layer. In the future, "Quest" will only be the name for Meta's own headsets, while "Horizon" will stand for the overarching elements of the operating system, platform and store.
A move that will cause confusion
Meta is increasingly focusing on Horizon and the social aspect of its own VR platform. This can be seen in the redesign of the smartphone app, which shoves Horizon Worlds down the throats of Quest users while making access to the app library and key headset options more difficult (requiring more taps).
It's clear that these changes are the result of strategic decisions made by Meta's leadership, rather than a desire to improve the user experience.
Meta hopes that one day there will be a diverse and vibrant ecosystem of headsets based on Meta Horizon OS. However, according to Zuckerberg, it could be "a few years" before some of these headsets (Asus, Lenovo) even make it to market.
So why push the established Quest brand into the background and the unpopular Horizon platform into the foreground now? Especially since this ongoing rebranding ("Oculus" becomes "Meta", "Quest" becomes "Horizon") is sure to confuse customers?
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