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Horizon Workrooms

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Horizon Workrooms
Information
Type Virtual reality meeting and collaboration application
Industry Remote work and productivity
Developer Meta Platforms
Operating System Meta Quest (Meta Horizon OS)
Supported Devices Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 3 (VR participants); Windows and Mac computers via the Remote Desktop companion app; web browser video call participants
Release Date August 19, 2021 (open beta)


Horizon Workrooms (later called Meta Horizon Workrooms) was a free virtual reality meeting and collaboration application developed by Meta Platforms for its Meta Quest headsets. It launched in open beta on August 19, 2021, when the company was still named Facebook, and let remote colleagues sit around a shared virtual table as avatars, write on a virtual whiteboard, and see their own physical desk, keyboard and computer screen from inside the headset.[1][2] A meeting could hold up to 50 people, of whom up to 16 could be in VR; the rest joined as video call participants from a computer.[1]

Meta described Workrooms as its "flagship collaboration experience" and used it as the main productivity showcase for the Meta Quest Pro headset announced in October 2022. The app gained a Zoom meeting integration in July 2023 and received a simplified redesign in May 2024 that removed the whiteboard and several other original features.[1][3][4][5]

Meta discontinued Workrooms as a standalone app on February 16, 2026, and deleted the data associated with it. The shutdown was announced in January 2026 alongside the end of sales for Meta's commercial Quest headsets and its managed services for businesses, and it followed reports of layoffs of roughly 1,000 people at Meta's Reality Labs division.[6][7][8]

Reviewed 20 September 2026. Launch date and participant limits, feature history, Quest Pro and Zoom integration dates, Quest for Business pricing, 2024 redesign, February 2026 discontinuation, review quotes and all 30 cited sources. About review dates.

History

Launch in 2021

Facebook released Horizon Workrooms as a free open beta for the Oculus Quest 2 on August 19, 2021, in every country where the Quest 2 was sold.[1][9] The company said it had already been using Workrooms for its own internal collaboration, and press coverage treated the app as a remote work tool released during the COVID-19 pandemic; TechCrunch wrote that it would have made a bigger splash had it launched earlier in the pandemic.[1][8][10] The launch bundled several technologies that Facebook had been developing separately: mixed reality desk and keyboard tracking, hand tracking as the primary input method, remote desktop streaming from a Mac or Windows PC through a companion app called Oculus Remote Desktop, video conferencing for people without a headset, spatial audio, and a new generation of Oculus Avatars.[1][11]

Using the app required a Quest 2 logged into a Facebook account plus a separate Workrooms account; users had to agree to the terms, confirm that they were 18 or older and choose a display name.[9] Keyboard tracking, which showed a model of the physical keyboard inside VR next to a passthrough cutout of the desk, supported a short list of models at launch: MacBook keyboards, the Apple Magic Keyboard and the Logitech K830, with more in development.[2] Facebook stated that Workrooms "will not use your work conversations and materials to inform ads on Facebook".[1][11]

On September 13, 2021, Meta and Zoom announced a partnership to bring Zoom Meetings and Zoom Whiteboard into Workrooms, with availability planned for 2022.[12] The following month Meta announced Quest for Business, a set of work accounts and device management features intended to let any Quest 2 be used for work, to replace the Oculus for Business program whose last purchase date was December 31, 2021. Meta named Workrooms as the flagship collaboration experience for the program and said it planned to add company branding options to Workrooms environments.[13]

Meta Quest Pro and Connect 2022

At Meta Connect on October 11, 2022, Meta announced the Meta Quest Pro, a US$1,499.99 headset with eye tracking and face tracking that shipped on October 25, 2022, and presented Workrooms as its main productivity use case.[14][15] Meta said the new Workrooms features were "purposefully built and optimized" for the Quest Pro. The update added avatars driven by the headset's eye and face sensors, a solo Personal Office with up to three virtual screens and four environments, breakout groups that split a meeting into smaller discussions with separate spatial audio, and sticky notes that persisted on the whiteboard.[15][16] The Meta Quest Touch Pro Controllers shipped with pressure-sensitive stylus tips that UploadVR described as designed specifically for drawing on the Workrooms whiteboard.[5][3] On Windows all three Personal Office screens had to be physical monitors connected to the PC at the time, while on Mac two of the three could be virtual; multi-user rooms were still limited to one screen. UploadVR reported that the app was available in 22 countries and remained free for Quest 2 and Quest Pro owners.[16]

Meta also announced a partnership with Microsoft. Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella joined Mark Zuckerberg to announce Windows 365 and Microsoft Teams apps for the Quest Pro and Quest 2 in the following year, including the ability to join a Teams meeting from inside Workrooms.[14][17] The Zoom integration was rescheduled for early 2023, an option to view 3D models in Workrooms was promised for the following year, a mixed reality feature called Magic Room for meetings mixing in-person and remote participants was previewed, and a Quest for Business subscription bundle with device and application management and premium support was announced for 2023.[15][17] Meta said that the consulting firm Accenture had deployed 60,000 Quest 2 headsets and welcomed 150,000 people in its "Nth Floor" virtual campus.[15]

Zoom integration and Quest for Business (2023)

The Zoom integration arrived in July 2023, almost two years after it was first announced. Quest users could join a Zoom meeting from Workrooms, keep viewing their PC in VR, share its screen to the rest of the call and use the virtual whiteboard, while participants on other devices saw the virtual room as one video attendee. Only the meeting host needed a paid plan (Zoom One Pro, Business, Business Plus or Enterprise); attendees joining from VR did not.[4] Workrooms supported the Quest 2 and Quest Pro at that point.[4]

Meta Quest for Business, the subscription program announced at Connect 2022, fully launched on November 16, 2023, at US$15 per headset per month for Individual Mode and US$24 for Shared Mode, covering the Quest 2, Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3 at consumer hardware prices. It replaced the earlier Oculus for Business program.[18]

The promised Microsoft Teams integration did not ship inside Workrooms. In January 2024 Microsoft instead released its own Microsoft Mesh app on the Quest Store, which let Quest owners join Teams meetings in an "immersive space (3D)" mode; UploadVR wrote that Mesh "may seem like a direct competitor for Meta's own Horizon Workrooms" and noted that joining regular Teams meetings from Workrooms was still described by the companies as a future plan.[19]

2024 redesign

Meta announced the changes in March 2024 and rolled out a redesigned Workrooms on May 30, 2024, with a new lakeside environment, an interface matching the current Quest design language, meetings that could be booked without first creating a workroom, link-based invitations, new access controls for meetings and workrooms, and larger, closer screen sharing.[20][21][5] The app now launched directly into the Personal Office, where the floating monitors could be resized and repositioned on the Quest 3 and Quest Pro and their positions saved automatically.[5][20][21]

The same update removed several original features: the whiteboards, workroom customization (posters, logos, environments and layouts), the web-based chat, files and links, breakout groups, and tracked keyboard support. Meta told users to download their whiteboards, posters, logos, chats, files and links before May 30, 2024, after which that data would be deleted.[20][5][21] UploadVR noted that the whiteboard was the feature the Touch Pro stylus tips had been designed around, and that the Zoom integration, PC screen viewing, avatar-based screen sharing, the web interface for participants without a Quest and the passthrough desk cutout all remained.[5]

Discontinuation (2026)

In January 2026 Meta announced that it would discontinue Workrooms as a standalone app. From February 16, 2026, the app could no longer be accessed and any data associated with it was deleted; before that date users could retrieve profile and room information through workrooms.workplace.com and download meeting information through the Meta Accounts Center.[6][22] Meta's support notice said that "Workrooms showed how Meta Horizon can help bring people together to work, collaborate and connect" and that "Meta Horizon has since developed into a social platform that supports a wide range of productivity apps and tools". It pointed users to the Meta Quest Remote Desktop app for virtual screens, to the third-party apps Arthur, Microsoft Teams Immersive and Zoom Workplace for meetings, and to worlds in Meta Horizon for social connection.[6][8][23]

In a post dated January 15, 2026, Meta also ended its business hardware program: sales of Horizon Managed Services and of commercial Quest SKUs stopped on February 20, 2026, and Meta said it was increasing its focus on "building the world-class first-party consumer hardware and software needed to advance the virtual reality market".[24] The program had launched as Oculus for Business in 2017, was rebranded Meta Quest for Business in late 2023 and renamed Meta Horizon Managed Services in 2025. Existing customers had their US$15 and US$24 monthly fees reduced to zero and keep access on the Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S until January 4, 2030, when support ends.[25][7][26]

The announcements came days after The New York Times reported that Meta was laying off around 10 percent of Reality Labs, a division of about 15,000 people, and shifting spending from VR toward smart glasses and AI; Road to VR and UploadVR also linked the shutdown to the closure of three internal VR game studios. The Register put the cuts at about 1,000 jobs and Computerworld at more than 1,000.[27][8][22][7][28]

Features

Workrooms combined a shared meeting room with a set of mixed reality tools that anchored the virtual space to the user's real desk. At launch, users marked the position of their physical desk so it appeared as a matching virtual desk, and a passthrough window around the keyboard let them see their hands and keys while typing.[2][10] The Oculus Remote Desktop app for Mac and Windows streamed the computer's screen onto a virtual monitor in front of the user and allowed screen sharing to the room.[1][2] The later Meta Quest Remote Desktop app stayed available after the shutdown for connecting a Quest to a computer with multiple virtual screens.[6][20]

Hand tracking was the primary input. For the whiteboard, users flipped a Touch controller around and wrote with it like a pen, either on the physical desk or standing at the board; whiteboard space was unlimited, boards persisted between sessions and could be exported from VR as images.[9][2] Rooms offered several table layouts, including a boardroom, a circular table and a classroom-style presentation layout, and the table grew automatically as more participants joined.[2][11] Seated avatars had no legs.[11] Spatial audio placed each voice at the position of the speaker's avatar. Facebook said audio was processed on its servers but not stored unless someone recorded and reported a clip, and that passthrough images were processed locally on the headset.[1][11] A companion web app handled scheduling, calendar sync with Outlook and Google Calendar, meeting notes, file sharing and text chat.[9][2]

The 2022 update added the Personal Office (up to three screens and four environments), breakout groups, sticky notes and stylus writing with the Touch Pro controllers.[15][16][3] The 2023 Zoom integration allowed VR users to join Zoom meetings hosted on paid plans.[4] After the May 2024 redesign, the feature set was reduced to the Personal Office, avatar meetings with screen sharing, the Zoom integration and web access for video participants.[20][5]

Feature Introduced Removed Source
Mixed reality desk and tracked keyboard August 2021 Keyboard tracking removed May 30, 2024 [1][20]
Virtual whiteboard (with sticky notes from October 2022) August 2021 May 30, 2024 [2][15][20]
Remote desktop streaming and screen sharing August 2021 Retained until shutdown [1][5]
Web chat, files, links and room customization August 2021 May 30, 2024 [9][20]
Personal Office with up to three screens October 2022 Retained until shutdown [16][5]
Breakout groups October 2022 May 30, 2024 [15][5]
Zoom meeting integration July 2023 Retained until shutdown [4][5]
Entire app August 19, 2021 February 16, 2026 [1][6]

Supported devices

Workrooms ran on Meta's standalone Quest headsets. At launch it required a Quest 2 for every VR participant, while non-VR participants joined by video call from a computer.[9] The Quest Pro was added in October 2022 and became the headset the app was most closely associated with, since its eye and face tracking drove avatar expressions and its Touch Pro controllers included stylus tips for the whiteboard.[3][5] In July 2023 UploadVR listed the Quest 2 and Quest Pro as the supported headsets, and by 2024 the Quest 3 was also supported, with resizable Personal Office windows on the Quest 3 and Quest Pro.[4][21][5] The remote desktop companion app supported Windows and Mac computers.[1]

Reception

TechCrunch's Lucas Matney wrote at launch that the spatial elements were "less overt and gimmicky than most VR apps" and that a meeting in Workrooms "at times, felt more productive and engaging than a normal video call".[10] Road to VR's Ben Lang found the desk passthrough worked well for aligning hands with the keyboard but was too low in resolution to read individual keys, and reported that latency between the PC and the headset was "surprisingly high", making the mouse and keyboard feel less responsive; he also found the controller-as-marker grip awkward.[2] The Register's Thomas Claburn headlined his report "Trust Facebook to find a way to make video conferencing more miserable and tedious".[11] Antony Vitillo, writing on The Ghost Howls, called the beta "nice, but not compelling for work yet", praising the sense of presence and the persistent rooms while criticizing headset discomfort after about 45 minutes, battery drain during desktop streaming, input lag, the low-resolution passthrough and the lack of 3D model import.[29]

At the Quest Pro launch, UploadVR's Ian Hamilton wrote that the pairing of Workrooms with the new headset was the clearest realization yet of headsets as personal computers, while noting poor frame rates for video playback on the virtual displays and that the Quest Pro's one to two hours of battery life meant sustained work would need external power.[3] In its November 2022 Quest Pro review, MIXED found that eye tracking "works well" in Workrooms but that face tracking carried little more than "a mumbling mouth" during normal conversation, and it reported a conflict between the headset's room setup and the app's own table configuration.[30]

UploadVR summarized the May 2024 redesign as a streamlined interface with fewer features and noted that the friction of using Workrooms had been a common complaint in mainstream reviews of the Quest Pro.[5] When the shutdown was announced, Road to VR framed it as part of Meta's cooling metaverse ambitions, and heise online recalled that Meta had said in December 2025 that VR "hardware and software are not yet mature enough for a larger market".[8][23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 "Introducing Horizon Workrooms: Remote Collaboration Reimagined". Meta Newsroom. Meta Platforms. 2021-08-19. https://about.fb.com/news/2021/08/introducing-horizon-workrooms-remote-collaboration-reimagined/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Ben Lang (2021-08-19). "Facebook Launches Horizon Workrooms for VR Collaboration on Quest". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-horizon-workrooms-launch/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Ian Hamilton (2022-10-11). "Hands-On: Meta Quest Pro Feels Made For Horizon Workrooms". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/workrooms-hands-on-quest-pro/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 David Heaney (2023-07-07). "Quest Users Can Now Join Zoom Pro Meetings From VR Via Horizon Workrooms". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/horizon-workrooms-zoom-integration-arrives/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 David Heaney (2024-05-30). "Horizon Workrooms Gets Improved Interface But Fewer Features". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/horizon-workrooms-overhaul/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 "Meta Horizon Workrooms is being discontinued". Meta Quest Help. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/help/quest/2464765133873078/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Richard Speed (2026-01-16). "Meta retreats from metaverse after virtual reality check". The Register. https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/16/meta_quest_horizon_workrooms/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Scott Hayden (2026-01-16). "Meta is Deleting 'Horizon Workrooms' Next Month as Metaverse Ambitions Cool". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/meta-horizon-workrooms-discontinued-2026/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 "Introducing 'Horizon Workrooms': Remote Collaboration Reimagined". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2021-08-19. https://www.meta.com/blog/workrooms/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Lucas Matney (2021-08-19). "Facebook finally made a good virtual reality app". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/19/facebook-finally-made-a-good-virtual-reality-app. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Thomas Claburn (2021-08-19). "Trust Facebook to find a way to make video conferencing more miserable and tedious". The Register. https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/19/facebooks_oculus_horizon/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  12. ↑ "Zoom Meets Virtual Reality: Announcing Zoom's Collaboration with Horizon Workrooms". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2021-09-13. https://www.meta.com/blog/zoom-meets-virtual-reality-announcing-zooms-collaboration-with-horizon-workrooms/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  13. ↑ "Evolving from Oculus for Business to Quest for Business". Meta Horizon OS Developers. Meta Platforms. 2021-10-28. https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/evolving-from-oculus-for-business-to-quest-for-business/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Meta Connect 2022: Meta Quest Pro, More Social VR and a Look Into the Future". Meta Newsroom. Meta Platforms. 2022-10-11. https://about.fb.com/news/2022/10/meta-quest-pro-social-vr-connect-2022/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 "Evolving the Future of Work at Meta Connect 2022". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2022-10-11. https://www.meta.com/blog/future-of-work-meta-connect-2022-quest-pro-microsoft-accenture/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Ian Hamilton (2022-10-20). "Horizon Workrooms Gets Triple Screen Personal Office, Sticky Notes, & More". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/horizon-workrooms-multi-screen-office/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Karissa Bell (2022-10-11). "Meta will integrate Zoom and Microsoft Teams into its VR workspaces". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/meta-will-integrate-zoom-and-microsoft-teams-into-horizon-workrooms-174012859.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  18. ↑ David Heaney (2023-11-16). "Meta Launches New Quest For Business Program From $15/Month". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-quest-for-business-launched/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  19. ↑ David Heaney (2024-01-26). "Microsoft Teams Now Supports 3D Immersive Meetings & Quest Owners Can Join From VR". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/microsoft-teams-now-suports-vr-meetings-microsoft-mesh/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 20.7 "Changes to Meta Horizon Workrooms". Meta Quest Help. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/help/quest/905237787864011/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Alan Truly (2024-03-28). "Big changes are coming to Horizon Workrooms, both good and bad". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/big-changes-are-coming-to-horizon-workrooms-both-good-and-bad/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 David Heaney (2026-01-16). "Meta Is Shutting Down Horizon Workrooms Next Month". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-shutting-down-horizon-workrooms/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Tomislav Bezmalinović (2026-01-16). "Meta Quest: Official VR office app and B2B program discontinued". heise online. https://www.heise.de/en/news/Meta-Quest-Official-VR-office-app-and-B2B-program-discontinued-11144019.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  24. ↑ "An Update on Meta for Work". Meta. Meta Platforms. 2026-01-15. https://www.meta.com/blog/an-update-on-meta-for-work/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  25. ↑ David Heaney (2026-01-16). "Meta Is Shutting Down Its Quest For Business Program". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-is-shutting-down-its-quest-for-business-program/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  26. ↑ "Meta virtual reality business subscription service". Meta. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/meta-for-work. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  27. ↑ Scott Hayden (2026-01-13). "Meta Reportedly Laying Off 10 Percent of Reality Labs, Shifting Focus from VR & Horizon Worlds". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/meta-layoff-10-percent-reality-labs-report/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  28. ↑ Mikael Markander (2026-01-19). "Meta shuts down VR platform Horizon Workrooms". Computerworld. https://www.computerworld.com/article/4118707/meta-shuts-down-vr-platform-horizon-workrooms.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  29. ↑ Antony Vitillo (2021-08-26). "Horizon Workrooms review: nice, but not compelling for work yet". The Ghost Howls. https://skarredghost.com/2021/08/26/horizon-workrooms-review/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  30. ↑ Benjamin Danneberg and Christian Steiner (2022-11-21). "Quest Pro Review: How good is Meta's first XR headset?". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/quest-pro-review/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
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