TapTechNews May 14th news, Meta announced the launch of a new Travel Mode that allows MetaQuest series headsets to be used on airplanes. This experimental feature is now available to Quest 2 and 3 headsets running Quest v65 or higher system. With this mode enabled, passengers can use the headset's Passthrough feature to view their surroundings during the flight without worrying about image drift due to airplane movement.
To experience Travel Mode, users simply need to enable it in Settings -> Experimental Features, and then Travel Mode will appear in the Quick Settings panel for easy toggling on and off. It is important to note that Travel Mode is currently optimized for airplane scenarios and does not support other transportation modes such as cars or trains. Meta has stated that support for other modes of transportation will be added in the future. Additionally, if a game or application requires internet connection, the user's flight must provide Wi-Fi service.
According to TapTechNews, although MetaQuest headsets could be used during flights before, users had to disable the location tracking feature, which also disabled the Passthrough feature, causing inconvenience. The introduction of Travel Mode addresses this issue.
Industry experts believe that this move is clearly in response to the VisionPro headset released by Apple earlier this year, which also has a similar Travel Mode. However, there are limitations such as not being able to look out the window, which would deactivate the tracking function. MetaQuest's new mode may also encounter similar situations.