Usually, when a company gives its products a UI overhaul, the new design focuses on fixing the problems that people complained about in the older version. Meta has been working on it for the past two years, but the end result is not getting the reception Meta was hoping for.
Since the update started becoming available to everyone a few weeks ago, I’ve received countless messages from friends (and the parents of my son’s friends) asking how to revert to the old UI. The answer is…you can’t. Follow-up questions typically revolve around how to do things they used to do every day, as many of the most common tasks now require multiple additional clicks or menu selections to find.
Meta has designed this new Navigator UI, as it’s called, to make it extremely easy to jump into VR experiences in record time. It certainly achieves that goal, but as it happens, whenever you prioritize one specific feature, everything else suffers because of it. If you are confused by the new Meta Quest UI and not sure what to do, here are some tips and tricks to get you going.
get those floating windows off my face
Meta’s Navigator UI launched with a brand new two-layer window system, which has become an immediate irritant for many. Pressing the Meta/Home button on the right controller now always brings up the app launcher, but all other system windows and apps run in floating windows. The problem is that pressing that Meta/Home button again doesn’t hide the windows; This only hides the app launcher.
Meta also completely redesigned the universal menu bar at the bottom, which no longer lets you pin apps, quickly close floating windows, or use the virtual camera. Instead, you will need double click Meta/Home button on right controller To hide floating windows. It’s possible that Meta explained it in one of those pop-up tutorial windows, but not many people read them, and hiding such important functionality behind a weird gesture irritates users. Very Disappointed.
Some versions of the Navigator UI now include a virtual “Hide Windows” button on the app launcher hot bar, which is at least a moderate improvement over this terrible dual-layer design, but it’s still a lot of button presses to achieve what a single home button press used to do.
How to update, pin, or uninstall an app
In the old app launcher, each app or game’s icon had a three-dot menu button in the top-right corner, allowing you to perform additional actions on that app. Things like pinning an app to the hotbar, updating it, checking permissions or even uninstalling were in very clear places which are similar to smartphone UI. The Navigator app launcher just shows a series of icons without any apparent additional action.
To find this hidden menu, Hover your cursor over an app or game’s iconThen press and hold the trigger button on your controller until the menu appears. From here, you can pin an app to the top of the app drawer, lock it from changes, hide it (usually used for games you own but no longer play), update, adjust settings, go to the Store page (see description), or uninstall it (remove from Library).
This is another UI change that hides common actions, and it’s frankly puzzling how it was defeated even before testing.
closing an app
Believe it or not, I have to write a tutorial on how to close a running app. This new UI is so bad. When you were playing an immersive game in the previous UI, you could press the Meta/Home button, then click Quit on the menu that appeared. It was simple! it was easy! But the meta had to go and make it tough.
In the Navigator, pressing the Meta/Home button opens the app launcher. You can click on another immersive game or app, which will automatically close the open immersive app, but sometimes you don’t want to jump from one app to another.
Instead, you must: Press the Meta/Home button on the right controller To open the App Launcher, then look at the small row of icons located on the hotbar below the App Launcher. You should see the icon for running app. Then go ahead and click on it Click on Skip On the menu that appears. Yet, a simple action that used to take a single click now requires unnecessary additional steps.
How to take a screenshot, record video or cast to TV
If you haven’t figured out the themes yet, here are three common camera functions: many Additional clicks for display in the new Navigator UI. To save time, here are three ways you can take a screenshot, record video, or cast to TV:
1. press meta/home button on the right controller to open the app launcher. Tap the pink/orange camera iconThen click on the action you want to perform. This is the easiest way to cast to TV.
2. If you can’t find Camera in the app drawer, you can click on quick settings iconLocated on the hotbar at the bottom of the app launcher. Then, you will click camera icon In the row of icons to open the camera drawer. This is the second fastest way to cast to TV.
3. to pick up quickly screenshot In Some? Games, press and hold the Meta/Home button, then quickly press the trigger on the same controller.
4. quickly record a video In Some? Games, press and hold the Meta/Home button, then press and hold the trigger on the same controller until you hear “Start recording.” Perform the same home button/trigger combo to pause the video.
I’m already tired, and I’m sure you are too. The good thing is that when you follow steps 1 and 2 above the new camera bar appears excess More functionality than the old menu. Try clicking on Camera Settings in that menu and play with the available options! You can default the recording camera to third-person view, make it Instagram-ready with a 9:16 aspect ratio, add image stabilization, and more.
Where did the settings go?
Finding settings used to be a fairly simple task. You’ll press the Home button, then tap Quick Settings, and a big, cute settings The button will be there. The new UI didn’t change these steps much, but it did make the Settings button absolutely tiny And it’s almost impossible to see. I don’t know why Meta wants to hide it so badly, but here’s how to find it:
1. press meta/home button on the right controller to open the app launcher.
2. tap quick settings icon On the hotbar below the app launcher.
3. When the quick settings appear, look at the small gear icon To the left of the Wi-Fi icon, then click on it to open Settings.
This is not good at all…
Look, I don’t like to complain about updates or UI changes because, most of the time, even the most dramatic changes can be positive once you get used to them. But the Navigator is a completely different thing. Although it launches apps significantly faster, it does so at the expense of almost every other action that Meta Quest gamers typically perform.
Meta received a lot of criticism for this update during the testing phase, including a lot of posts on their own forums on social media and feedback through the official process, but they still went ahead and released the new UI to everyone without making fundamental changes.
Meta has There was a big problem with minor updates in the past, but this update is not like that buggyIt’s bad in very different ways. The only way to revert menu changes is to use Quest Games OptimizerWhich you’ll need to sideload, but the app also opens up a ton of customization and performance options that aren’t otherwise available. QGO is a really great app that I use every time I play on my Quest, but even if you don’t get it, you at least know how to work around the new Navigator UI.
