Explore Meta Spatial SDK and New Ways to Optimize and Grow on Meta Horizon OS

Meta Connect 2024 has officially kicked off with two action-packed days featuring the technologies of the future. This year we unveiled brand-new ways for you to build and grow your business on Meta Horizon OS, including 2D app support on the Meta Horizon Store and Meta Spatial SDK, a framework that enables you to build with familiar Android development tools and create experiences that take advantage of the unique capabilities of Meta Quest.

From expanded development paths for building MR, VR, web, and 2D apps to the ability to ship your app once to multiple devices on and off our platform, there’s never been a better time to develop for Meta Horizon OS.

Whether you’re new to XR development or ready to start building your next title, there are plenty of fresh opportunities to build and enhance your apps for Meta Horizon OS.

First off, Meta Quest 3S, our latest MR device is slated for launch on October 15 and starting at $299.99 USD. Quest 3S offers the same high-quality mixed reality capabilities and fast performance of Quest 3. Perfect for MR newcomers, our latest headset lets everyone enjoy all of the top-quality MR games and apps on the Meta Horizon Store. For developers, this launch presents an opportunity to welcome a brand-new audience of people eager to explore what MR has to offer.

With Quest 3S, MR is becoming even more accessible to people around the world. Quest 3S is an approachable entry point that unlocks rich experiences across gaming, fitness, entertainment, and more.

Let’s take a quick look at what Quest 3S has to offer. Quest 3S has the same power and performance of Quest 3 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 and 8GB of RAM, ensuring the same apps can run on both devices. It also has the same 4-megapixel RGB 18 PPD color passthrough cameras so mixed reality experiences look great. They also come with Touch Plus controllers. The main difference between Quest 3S and Quest 3 is the optical stack. The Quest 3S has a 1832 x 1920, 20 pixels per degree display, with a 96° horizontal and 90° vertical field of view. One important note is the Quest 3S uses a default eye buffer size of 1680 x 1760, just like the Quest 3.

Quest 3S also includes a new action button that lets people quickly toggle between fully immersive and Passthrough MR modes so they can easily switch to their preferred environment. To learn more about Quest 3S, be sure to watch the Connect session, “Meet Meta Quest 3S.”

Next, we are making it easy for all developers to build spatial apps on Meta Horizon OS, by leaning on existing development skills and experience.

With our announcement of Meta Spatial SDK, you can lean on your previous mobile development experience to quickly develop and optimize experiences for Meta Horizon OS. Our goal is to make building and distributing immersive apps easier for developers of all skill levels, platform experience, and engine preferences.

Meta Spatial SDK is a Kotlin-based set of accessible APIs that enables you to use the Android development languages, tools, and libraries you’re familiar with to build completely new immersive apps or take existing mobile apps and enhance them by adding spatial features. We’ve designed Meta Spatial SDK to fuel faster build times, be easy to use, and provide a streamlined method of adding complexity and depth to your existing mobile experiences without the need for game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine.

Working with 3D assets and spatial design are some of the most challenging parts of learning to build an immersive app. To help mobile devs quickly ramp up, we also built Meta Spatial Editor, a spatial composition tool that allows you to import, organize, and transform your assets into visual compositions. You can then simply export your visual compositions into Meta Spatial SDK to create immersive experiences. With the ability to collaborate visually with other developers and easily position, resize, and manipulate your assets without code, your process for developing and optimizing apps with Meta Spatial SDK becomes even more streamlined.

Get started with Meta Spatial SDK by downloading the open beta version today. You can also build alongside our open source showcase apps: Focus, Geo Voyage, and Media View. These were all built from the ground up with developers in mind, and will show you how to integrate 2D panels, 3D, and spatial media. You can find them all on Github today.

To learn more about Meta Spatial SDK check out our documentation portal for tutorials, guides, samples and more. And be sure to watch the Connect session “Introducing Meta Spatial SDK.”

Finally, we are also helping you distribute and monetize your apps easily.

While design and development tools play a pivotal role when creating delightful user experiences, having effective options for distribution, monetization, and user engagement is critical to build momentum and sustain growth. Whether you are trying to find an audience for your MR apps, spatial apps, or 2D apps, these investments will help you easily publish and fuel your app growth.

ICYMI, the Meta Horizon Store is now open to all developers. This means that now anyone can release VR, MR, 2D, web, hybrid, and spatialized apps in the Meta Horizon Store and benefit from additional visibility and discoverability.

All developers can also leverage a suite of tools designed to help generate revenue, engagement, visibility, and data-driven insights to support their businesses. The Developer Dashboard conveniently hosts several tools and functionalities to help you achieve your goals, ranging from A/B testing marketing assets and pre-launch listings and pre-orders to subscriptions, early access options that can drive interest with users ahead of launch day, and much more.

Whether it’s your first time publishing an app or your hundredth, explore the many options you have to build and grow your business by visiting our documentation and watching the Connect session “Launch and grow in the Meta Horizon Store.”

Check out the latest opportunities and announcements from Meta Connect by watching select developer sessions on demand. For the latest developer news, tips, tutorials, and updates, be sure to follow us on X and Facebook, and subscribe to our monthly newsletter in your Developer Dashboard settings.