Quest headsets now have an official Disney+ app, with support for downloads and Dolby Atmos immersive audio.
It was already possible to watch Disney+ via the website in the Horizon OS web browser, but this is limited to 720p.
With the official app, Meta says Disney+ streams at up to 4K resolution with Dolby Vision HDR for all subscribers of the service. Quest 3 only has 2K regular LCD panels, so the direct benefits of 4K and HDR over 1080p SDR will be marginal, but the increased bitrate that comes alongside the higher resolution version should be very noticeable on the giant virtual screen, in terms of seeing fewer compression artifacts.
Subscribers of the Disney+ Premium tier also get Dolby Atmos immersive audio in supported titles, a feature added to Horizon OS in v71 last year, as well as the ability to download content for offline viewing. That means you can now bring your Quest on a plane and watch Disney+ movies you've prepared, for example.
Window screenshots of Disney+ on Quest.
What isn't supported on the Quest Disney+ app that is on the visionOS version, however, is 3D. Despite headsets being the ideal way to watch 3D movies, solving the problems of traditional 3D glasses in cinemas, the Quest app is limited to 2D only. It also lacks the custom 3D environments of the visionOS Disney+ app, such as the Alien: Earth Containment Room.
You can grab Disney+ on the Meta Horizon Store for free, and you'll need a Disney+ subscription, of course. Meta claims that the app is currently only available in the US, but I was able to download and use it in the UK, despite not using a VPN or proxy of any kind.
The only other major streaming platform with an app on Quest's store with download support is Amazon Prime Video, which arrived on Meta's platform alongside the launch of Quest 3S.
Netflix, meanwhile, is available in the web browser at up to 1080p, due to Meta working with the platform last year to implement full DRM support.
Meta's CTO has responded to speculation of VR being "dead" at the company.
After reports from outlets like Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider suggested that Meta is "considering" a cut "as high as 30%" for its "metaverse" teams, Meta issued an official statement confirming "shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables".
"Within our overall Reality Labs portfolio we are shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables given the momentum there," the official statement read. "We aren't planning any broader changes than that."
Following this, in an "ask-me-anything" session on his Instagram page, Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth was asked the question "Is VR dead for Meta now? You seem to have moved on to glasses and AI?".
Here's how Bosworth responded:
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Every now and then there's just a narrative that people cannot help writing, and I'll give you the way to know.
First of all, the answer is no: VR is not dead. We're also investing a lot in glasses and AI, and that's the trick.
The way to know if there's a convenient narrative is if it appears zero-sum. Meta is a big company. We can invest in many things. We can invest in VR, glasses, and AI — and by the way, we have been for years.
Every year we go through a budget process, and in that budget process, we ask every team, "Hey, can you do the same work more effectively?" We've got better tools, we've got AI, we've got things. You're trying to right-size it. How big is the market? How fast is it growing? Is that what we expected? If it's slower than we expected, let's make sure our burn rate is lower. If it's faster than expected, let's double down and make sure we take advantage and don't cede it to other people. You're being smart about it, but it's normal stuff.
Bosworth's response doesn't contradict Meta's official confirmation of shifting some investment "from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables", but seems to push back on the framing of a 30% spending cut meaning the company no longer investing in VR at all, suggesting that it can work on VR, glasses, and AI concurrently.
Meta's funding shift from Horizon Worlds and VR to smart glasses comes just over a year after a leaked memo from Bosworth told Reality Labs staff that 2025 will determine whether their projects are "the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure".
In the memo, Bosworth described 2025 as "the most critical year in my 8 years at Reality Labs", and told staff they "need to drive sales, retention, and engagement across the board but especially in MR". Note that at the time, Meta was using MR to refer to VR too, a nomenclature that it ended earlier this year.
"And Horizon Worlds on mobile absolutely has to break out for our long term plans to have a chance", Bosworth added.
Since then, Reality Labs saw its highest-ever quarterly revenue in Q4 2024 with the launch of Quest 3S, which was the top-selling console on Amazon US for Christmas. But this momentum did not carry through into 2025 at all.
The first two quarters of 2025 saw Quest sales decline year-over-year, revealing that while Quest 3S was a popular stocking stuffer, it simply is not a successful year-round product. While Q3 saw a rebound, Meta explained that this was due to retailers stocking up on Quest 3S for this year's holiday season.
Meanwhile, Meta has continued to push its Horizon Worlds "metaverse" platform with multi-million-dollar creator competitions, especially focused on smartphone-only worlds, as the company hopes to scale the platform from a social VR space to a cross-platform Roblox and Fortnite competitor. But this doesn't seem to have gained much traction.
This relative stagnation in its Quest and Horizon Worlds efforts comes as the company is seeing skyrocketing sales and significant public and investor interest in its smart glasses.
Back in February, in its Q4 2024 earnings call, Meta's partner EssilorLuxottica said that the Ray-Ban Meta glasses had sold 2 million units, and in its Q2 2025 call in July said that sales had more than tripled since last year, performing "exceptionally well".
In its Q2 2025 call in July, the company said that the glasses were performing "exceptionally well" in the market, with sales having more than tripled compared to 2024.
This doesn't mean Meta isn't working on new headsets, though. Leaked memos reveal that it plans to launch its rumored ultralight headset with a tethered compute puck in the first half of 2027, and that it recently started work on a gaming-focused Quest 4 set to be a "large upgrade" over Quest 3, though at a higher price.
Quest 3S is on sale for $250 again, and from Best Buy it comes with a $50 gift card, 1 month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.
For Black Friday 2025, the 128GB model of the headset was on sale for $250 ($50 off its regular $300 price), and the 256GB storage model for $330 ($70 off its regular $400 price), in a sale that ended after December 2. On top of this, Best Buy was providing $110 of perks. Now, Meta has brought the sale back, and Best Buy has brought its deal back too.
You can find the deal for the 128GB base model of Quest 3S here, and for the 256GB model here.
Both deals end after 11:59 pm PT on January 3, giving plenty of time to order for a holiday season gift.
In both cases, you still get 3 months of the Meta Horizon+ subscription, as with all purchases of new Meta Quest headsets.
You could use the $50 Best Buy gift card to get the Elite Strap to make the headset more comfortable for just $20, for example, while during the 1 month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (normally $30) you can play popular flatscreen games like Call of Duty on a giant virtual screen.
As for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, it's also normally $30, and it's widely considered to be one of the best VR games of all time due to its physics-based combat system, earning an 'Essential' score in our review.
While Quest 3S can run all the same content as Quest 3, and has the same fundamental capabilities (including the same XR2 Gen 2 chipset and 8GB RAM), if you have the funds we always recommend Quest 3 over Quest 3S. The proper Quest 3 features Meta's advanced pancake lenses which are clearer and sharper over a wider area, have a wider field of view, and are fully horizontally adjustable, suitable for essentially everyone's eyes. These pancake lenses also enable Quest 3 to be thinner, which makes the headset feel slightly less heavy.
Still, at $250 and with $110 worth of perks Quest 3S is hard to say no to, and it could be an impulse gift for the holiday season to bring a friend or loved one into VR and mixed reality.
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