We all primarily use our Meta Quest’s for gaming. Playing great titles like Asgard’s Wrath 2 or Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice. But Meta – CEO Mark Zuckerberg in particular – has always envisioned its VR headsets as an entire workplace solution. The latest drive to encourage users to see VR as a work tool has been the release of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for Meta Quest.
All three apps have now officially launched on the Meta Quest Store for free. However, they’re all classed as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) which essentially means they’re quick links to Microsoft 365’s suite of apps. So rather than bookmarking them in your VR browser you can easily find the app in your library. You’ll always need an internet connection to access them though – no offline working here – and a subscription to Microsoft 365, of course.
Quest is the Word
As you’ll be accessing web apps, Word, Excel and PowerPoint all appear as 2D panels. These can be overlaid on a virtual environment or they do support passthough so you can see the rest of your office. Multitaskign is supported, therefore you can have three windows open at once. Furthermore, you can control them all with a Bluetooth connected mouse and keyboard. Tracked keyboards in VR mode also supported.
Originally announced back in 2022, Word, Excel and PowerPoint are all joined by another Microsoft offering this month, Xbox Games Pass. The service arrived last week allowing all Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to play they favourite titles on Meta Quest. Once again, this is via a virtual screen and you’ll need a compatibile gamepad to play them.
This continues a long running collaboration between the two companies. VR veterans will remember that the original Oculus Rift came with an Xbox controller before the Oculus Touch was eventually released.
Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint support Meta Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest Pro headsets.
