The latest Meta Quest update makes Horizon Worlds mandatory
The latest update to Meta Quest removes the option to uninstall Horizon Worlds and introduces enhanced live captions.
Update v76 has been rolling out since April 8th and seems to be a smaller release with only a few changes.
The release notes mention the following:
- Horizon Worlds is now called Worlds and has been "integrated into the Horizon platform experience". It's not clear exactly what this means, but according to user reports, Worlds can no longer be uninstalled. I have not been able to verify this as Worlds is not supported in my country and therefore cannot be downloaded (however, like all Quest users, I receive many world recommendations for Meta's social platform).
- The second new feature is a unique advertising ID for Quest devices. "Your advertising ID is a unique device indicator that app developers can use to show you more relevant ads on Meta Horizon OS. You can enable or disable your advertising ID at any time by going to Settings in your headset. Advertising IDs may not be available to everyone," the release notes state.
Hands-on with Live Captions
On the other hand, the enhanced Live Captions, which are not documented in the release notes, are a nice addition for users.
This feature transcribes and displays all spoken content in and outside of VR and MR applications in real time. Captions have been supported since Update 56, with the restriction that they only work in your home environment and not for spoken content from other users. These restrictions no longer apply with the updated feature.
The feature not only helps people with hearing impairments. Non-native English speakers can use the feature to read what English speakers are saying in social apps and multiplayer games. Even voice output in single-player experiences is transcribed, as I was able to verify for myself. This can be useful in games that don't support subtitles. Translation is not supported, and in my test, captions for spoken German language were unusable.
According to the description, Live Captions are "available in multiple languages and work in supported apps". Try it for yourself. You can find the option under Settings > Accessibility > Hearing.
Under Settings > Advanced, there is also an option called "Improve live captions and dictation". This allows you to transcribe speech locally on the headset instead of via the cloud. "This enhances privacy, improves speed and makes live captions and dictation available for end-to-end encrypted apps. This setting requires a 150MB download to your headset," the description reads.
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