The display refresh rate represents how many times per second a headset’s screen refreshes. A higher refresh rate enables higher frame rates, brighter output, and improved color clarity. However, higher refresh rates require your app to perform its work in shorter amounts of time.

The default display refresh rate for apps is 72 Hz. If you want to run your app at a different refresh rate, you are responsible for ensuring that your app is performant enough to sustain that rate. Apps that can’t consistently render at the desired display refresh rate will fail Meta Horizon Store review. Such apps might exhibit judder, flickering black areas on the peripheries, and other performance-related problems.

Some headset models are capable of higher display refresh rates than others. While the table below lists the currently available refresh rates, always confirm programmatically that the refresh rate you want is valid on the user’s device before attempting to set that rate.

60 Hz must only be used by media player apps. It is provided as a way to synchronize 30 FPS or 60 FPS video with the display refresh rate for smooth playback. Note that Media apps can use higher refresh rates, as long as the refresh rates are supported by the device and the app remains performant. Non-media player apps that set the display refresh rate to 60 Hz will fail the Store review.

You can see the current refresh rate on your headset in real time with the following steps:

You need to enable the XR_FB_display_refresh_rate extension to display the supported refresh rates. For example:

uint32_t rateCount = 0;
CHECK_XR(xrEnumerateDisplayRefreshRatesFB(session, 0, &rateCount, nullptr));

std::vector<float> rates(rateCount, 0.0f);CHECK_XR(xrEnumerateDisplayRefreshRatesFB(session, rateCount, &rateCount, rates));

If you want to set refresh rates other than 72 Hz for your app, you need to enable the XR_FB_display_refresh_rate extension. For example:

float desiredRate = 90.0f;  // or whichever rate you wish to set
CHECK_XR(xrRequestDisplayRefreshRateFB(session, desiredRate));

If an app with a display refresh rate higher than 72 Hz experiences thermal events, dynamic throttling may change the refresh rate to 72 Hz as a first step. If thermal conditions worsen, dynamic throttling may take an additional step to change frame rate while maintaining the refresh rate (the equivalent of minVsyncs=2).

If you need your app to know if dynamic throttling reduces the refresh rate so that the app can respond in some way, you can get this information from the ‘predictedDisplayTime’ field of the ‘XrFrameState’ in ‘xrWaitFrame’. For more information, see Frame Submission in the OpenXR Guide.

You can simulate the dynamic throttling from a higher display refresh rate. While your app is running, broadcast an intent through the adb shell activity manager. For example, this command simulates throttling for 10 seconds:

If you aren’t able to see a visible change in your app, you can verify the refresh rate change by using xrGetDisplayRefreshRateFB function.