Air Link

Air Link
Information
Type	Wireless PC VR streaming
Industry	Virtual reality
Developer	Meta Platforms (formerly Oculus VR)
Operating System	Meta Horizon OS, Windows
License	Proprietary, bundled with Quest system software
Supported Devices	Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest Pro
Release Date	April 13, 2021 (Experimental)
Website	https://www.meta.com/help/quest/509273027107091/

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Air Link is a wireless streaming feature developed by Meta Platforms (under its Oculus brand at launch) that lets a Meta Quest standalone headset play PC VR games over a local Wi-Fi network instead of a cable. It is the wireless counterpart to Oculus Link (now Meta Quest Link), the wired USB connection that turns a Quest into a tethered PC VR headset.

Oculus announced Air Link on April 13, 2021, and rolled it out to all Meta Quest 2 owners as part of the v28 software update, where it shipped in an "Experimental" mode. Support was extended to the original Oculus Quest with the v30 update in June 2021. The feature is bundled with the headset system software and the companion Windows application at no extra cost, which distinguishes it from third-party wireless PC VR tools such as Virtual Desktop.

Overview

Air Link uses the same streaming pipeline as Oculus Link: a Windows PC renders the VR application, compresses each frame, and transmits the video, audio, and headset and controller input over the network, while the headset decodes the stream and sends its tracking data back to the PC. The wired version moves this data over a USB cable; Air Link moves it over Wi-Fi, removing the tether at the cost of added sensitivity to network conditions.

Meta has consistently positioned the wired connection as the higher-quality and more reliable option, describing the wireless mode as suitable for users with a strong Wi-Fi setup. At launch the company stated that "Oculus Link cables will still provide a robust and consistent experience, while those with a strong WiFi setup can choose to stream wirelessly through Air Link."

History

Oculus first showed Air Link in an April 13, 2021 blog post that bundled it with other Quest 2 features, including a 120 Hz refresh-rate option and physical desk and keyboard tracking for the Infinite Office feature. The feature reached users gradually as the v28 build rolled out, becoming available to anyone running v28 on both the headset and the Oculus PC software around April 23, 2021.

Air Link was limited to Quest 2 at launch and did not work on the first-generation Quest. In a June 17, 2021 blog post, Oculus said owners of the original Quest could enable Air Link starting with the v30 software update.

As Meta consolidated its products under the Horizon brand, the Windows desktop application that manages both connection types was renamed. The Meta Quest Link app became the Meta Horizon Link app with the Meta Horizon OS version 83 update, which Meta said would roll out the week of November 24, 2025 to Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 2. The rename applied to the app and the wired connection branding; the underlying wireless streaming function is still called Air Link.

Air Link milestones

Date	Software version	Event
April 13, 2021	v28	Air Link announced for Quest 2 as an Experimental feature
April 2021	v28	Rolled out to Quest 2 users running v28 on headset and PC
June 17, 2021	v30	Air Link enabled on the original Oculus Quest
Week of November 24, 2025	Horizon OS v83	PC app renamed from Meta Quest Link to Meta Horizon Link

How it works

The PC renders the application's stereo view, encodes it with a hardware video encoder, and sends the compressed stream to the headset, which decodes it for display. Reported encoding uses the H.264 and HEVC video codecs, with a maximum bitrate around 200 Mbps on Nvidia hardware and a lower ceiling, around 100 Mbps, on AMD graphics cards.

The Oculus Debug Tool, a utility installed with the PC software, exposes several streaming controls that affect Air Link image quality. These include an Encode Bitrate setting, an Encode Resolution Width that defaults to 0 (letting the system pick a dynamic value), and an Encode Dynamic Bitrate option that adjusts the bitrate automatically based on conditions. Because the picture is compressed and decoded in real time and depends on available wireless bandwidth, it can show more compression artifacts than the wired connection, particularly on congested or weak networks.

Network requirements

Air Link's performance depends heavily on the home network. Oculus's launch guidance recommended a secure 5 GHz network served by an AC or AX (Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6) router, connecting the PC to that router with an Ethernet cable, and keeping the headset in the same room as the router, ideally within roughly 20 feet. Meta's later support material continued to list a Wi-Fi network, preferably 5 GHz, a Windows PC that meets the minimum requirements, and the Meta Horizon Link app installed on the computer.

Recommended setup at launch

Component	Recommendation
Wi-Fi band	5 GHz
Router	AC or AX (Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6)
PC connection	Wired Ethernet to the router
Headset placement	Same room as the router, within about 20 feet

Supported devices

Air Link works with Meta's standalone Quest headsets running current system software paired with a Windows PC. As of 2026 the supported headsets are Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, and Meta Quest Pro; the original Oculus Quest also gained support in 2021. The companion software is the Meta Horizon Link app for Windows, formerly the Oculus and then the Meta Quest Link app.

Role in virtual reality

Air Link addresses one of the practical limits of the Quest design. A Quest headset is a self-contained Android-based device, but its mobile processor is weaker than a desktop GPU, so demanding PC VR titles distributed through stores such as Steam are reached by streaming the rendered frames from a PC rather than running them on the headset. Oculus Link first provided this over a USB cable; Air Link did it without the tether, which removes the physical leash that can pull on the headset and restrict large room-scale movement.

By shipping a free, first-party wireless option, Meta moved a capability that had previously relied on the paid third-party application Virtual Desktop into the headset's own software. Air Link broadened the use of a single standalone headset both as a self-contained device and as a wireless display for a PC VR library, while Meta still recommends the wired Link connection for users who want the most consistent image quality and latency.