Release notes

Fixed a cookie issue where cookies would get deleted on browser startup. Users may see that they got logged out of some sites as a result of the fix. Some users were no longer able to login to some websites because of an inconsistent state, this should now be resolved. Commonly, if you couldn’t login to netflix.com, it should be fixed.

Fixed an issue where the browser could sometimes start up in a bad state, leading to corrupted site state. Temporary site data will be cleared to address this issue, which could result in users getting logged out of sites. This will only happen once.

Security Fixes

Performance improvements

Browser 38.1

The 38.1 release contains the following:

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Access to the Avatar Selfie Camera when using the camera on websites

Additional changes:

WebXR: support for general texture foveation (https://immersive-web.github.io/layers/#dom-xrwebglbinding-foveateboundtexture)

WebXR: Support for EXT_clip_control (https://registry.khronos.org/webgl/extensions/EXT_clip_control/)

WebXR: Support for hand microgestures. See https://micro-gestures-demo.glitch.me/ for a demo

WebXR: fix race condition in haptics. This caused haptics to stop working under certain conditions.

Browser 37.1

The 37.1 release contains the following:

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Optimal decoding of small videos

Enabled HLS decoding

Added ability to override the Browser language (including languages not supported by the system). Sites will use the language of your choosing instead of the system’s language.

Additional changes:

Bug fixes

Performance improvements

Browser 37.0

The 37.0 release contains the following:

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Optimal decoding of small videos

Enabled HLS decoding

Added ability to override the Browser language (including languages not supported by the system). Sites will use the language of your choosing instead of the system’s language.

Additional changes:

Fixes for spatial permissions in WebXR

Browser 36.6

The 36.6 release contains the following:

Changes:

Optimize cookie loading to improve startup time

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Performance improvements

Browser 36.5

The 36.5 release contains the following:

New features:

Drag and Drop: Redesigned user experience when dragging tabs

Screen sharing is now available on all websites

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Install to Library: Web applications may now be installed to Library. Browser may promote this feature on frequently visited hosts.

Closing the last tab in a window will close the window

Ability to override the system language to tell websites which language you prefer (including languages not supported by the system).

Additional changes:

Media playback is more reliable and many errors and rendering issues should be resolved.

A bug was breaking media playback on Netflix with a Quest 2 has been fixed.

CPU usage has been reduced.

Browser 36.2

The 36.2 release contains the following:

New features:

WebXR: ‘Depth’ and ‘Planes’ permissions have been combined into single ‘Spatial’ permission

The PDF Reader extension will be automatically installed for users, allowing access by default to PDF files on the web. This extension can be uninstalled from the Extensions Management page.

Import passwords from another browser. You can access this feature in the Passwords section of the settings page

Manage site permissions across all sites. You can access this new page under Settings > Privacy and Security > Website permissions

Minor updates to styling, content, and ordering on the permissions modal

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Ability to share your screen with others during a video call

Improvements in the video rendering, especially for encrypted media.

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Performance improvements

Browser 36.0

The 36.0 release contains the following:

New features:

WebXR: foveation will now apply smoothly instead of limited to 3 levels

WebXR: support for viewport scaling

Experimental features (not available to all users):

For users in the United States and Canada, Netflix will now appear in the Popular section of the New Tab Page instead of the banner.

Tiles on the New Tab Page now have a zoom effect on hover

Changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Performance improvements

Updated to Chromium Milestone 130: New and improved standards support and security updates.

Browser 35.3

The 35.3 release contains the following:

Changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Performance improvements

Browser 35.1

The 35.1 release contains the following:

New features:

Dolby Atmos: Supported websites can now play audio in Dolby Atmos, creating a spatial sound experience that puts the listener inside the center of the action.

Spatial Audio: All websites will now play stereo sounds coming from the position of the Browser.

Logitech MX Ink: WebXR support for new 6DoF pen controller with 2 buttons and 2 pressure sensitive areas

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Browser 35.0

The 35.0 release contains the following:

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Drag and Drop: Redesigned user experience when dragging tabs

Additional changes:

Updated to Chromium Milestone 128: New and improved standards support and security updates.

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Browser 34.5

The 34.5 release contains the following:

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Browser 34.4

New features:

The tab bar is now hidden if there is only one tab in a panel. You can change this behavior in Browser settings.

The Speculation Rules API now works in Browser, and we’re gradually rolling out support for other page preloading technologies. Preloading can be disabled in Browser settings.

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Browser 34.3

New features:

WebXR: transform is now provided for the origin reset event

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Browser 34.2

New features:

WebXR: add experimental support for unbounded spaces

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Browser 34.1

New features:

WebXR Multimodal Input: If hands are enabled in WebXR, you can now get one hand and one controller. In addition, the non-primary inputs can now be tracked in the session’s trackedSources attribute.

Background Fetch API: The Background Fetch API has been enabled and can now be used by websites to download content to be used while offline.

Additional changes:

Fixes crash when a video resumes after the headset was turned off.

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Browser 34.0

Performance improvements:

Improved the performance of the browser UI. Actions like opening or switching tabs are now snappier.

Overall performance of the browser has been improved through compiler optimizations.

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Meta Quest Browser 33.3

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Push Notifications: Browser now supports sending push notifications. To enable them, sites must request permissions to send notifications.

Additional changes:

WebXR: Depth sensing implementation has been updated to support the latest spec. Older implementations will continue to work with a warning.

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Meta Quest Browser 33.2

New features:

Tab Dragging Improvements: added support for dragging with direct touch using a pinching gesture.

Full Screen Improvements: we’ve simplified the UI and added new functionality! You can now select from multiple screen size options and control the brightness of your immersive environment while watching full screen videos.

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Meta Quest Browser 33.1

New Features:

The PDF Reader extension: No longer experimental and available to install from the Extensions page, allowing users to view online PDF content.

Full Screen Improvements: Some users will get new full-screen controls; we’ve simplified the UI and added new functionality! You can now select from multiple screen size options and control the brightness of your immersive environment while watching full screen videos.

Additional Changes:

Improved speed on omnibar auto-complete suggestions

Bug fixes surrounding audio playback while Browser is in background

WebXR joint names adjusted to match W3C specification

Assorted crash fixes

Meta Quest Browser 33.0

New Features:

Draggable Tabs: Long pressing the new tab button will now create a draggable tab!

WebXR: Fixed a timing issue when using hands-as-controllers and re-enabled the feature

Additional changes:

Updated to Chromium Milestone 124: New and improved standards support and security updates.

Bug fixes and improvements to Full Screen mode, Extensions, and the New Tab Page

WebXR fixes where the wrong controller type was showing up for Quest Pro

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Performance improvements

Meta Quest Browser 32.3

New features:

Browser is now ~15% faster with Profile Guided Optimization: From this version forward, we’re making the browser faster with a compiler optimization technique called Profile Guided Optimization (PGO). This technique makes the most performance critical parts of the code run faster!

Improved New Tab Page: Users should see faster load times, regional content, and removal or resizing of some shelves.

Experimental features (not available to all users):

PDF Reader: A new PDF Reader extension will be available to install from the Extensions page, allowing users to view online PDF content.

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Meta Quest Browser 32.2

New features:

Browser Extensions: Beta release with support for selected Browser Extensions. LastPass available for installation from Browser settings.

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Improved New Tab Page: Users should see faster load times, regional content, and removal or resizing of some shelves.

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Performance improvements

Bug fixes

Meta Quest Browser 32.1

New features:

New windows: Now available to all users: Create new Meta Quest Browser windows through the options menu (three-dot menu) or by right clicking a link.

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Browser Extensions: Initial rollout of support for selected Browser Extensions. This is a Beta release, currently with LastPass available for installation.

Persistent audio: Media will now continue to play when you switch to a new tab in the same window! You can mute a tab by clicking the ‘volume’ icon on the playing tab.

Improved New Tab Page: Users should see faster load times, regional content, and removal or resizing of some shelves.

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Performance improvements

Bug fixes

Meta Quest Browser 32.0

New features:

WebXR gamepad updates: Gamepad info for the quest 3 controller in WebXR will now report:

Thumb proximity to the top face of the controller

Index finger proximity to the trigger

Pointedness the index finger is. 0 = fully pointed, 1 = finger on the surface

Position of the index finger on the trigger

Force of the index finger on the trigger. After pulling the trigger, this will return the additional force from the index finger

WebXR: Experimental support for body tracking

WebGPU: Support for WebGPU (!)

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Browser Extensions: Initial rollout of support for selected Browser Extensions. This is a Beta release, currently with LastPass available for installation.

New windows: Create new Browser windows through the options menu (three-dot menu) or by right clicking a link.

Persistent audio: Media will now continue to play when you switch to a new tab in the same window! You can mute a tab by clicking the ‘volume’ icon on the playing tab.

Improved New Tab Page: Users should see faster load times, regional content, and removal of some shelves.

Additional changes:

Updated to Chromium Milestone 122: For more information about new and improved standards support, see Chromium Revision

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Meta Quest Browser 31.4 (available on OS v62+ only)

New features:

WebXR: Add support for simultaneous hands and controllers.

Tabs in immersive: Your Browser tabs will now be available across immersive applications.

Experimental features (not available to all users):

New Windows: Create new Browser windows through the options menu (three-dot menu) or by right clicking a link.

Persistent audio: Media will now continue to play when you switch to a new tab in the same window! You can mute a tab by clicking the ‘volume’ icon on the playing tab.

Improved New Tab Page: Users should see faster load times, regional content, and removal of some shelves.

Improved Fullscreen Media Experience: Users will experience less distracted viewing by detecting idle interaction, preventing on-screen cursor and accidental hand interactions.

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Meta Quest Browser 31.3

Experimental features (not available to all users):

New Windows: Create new Browser windows through the options menu (three-dot menu) or by right clicking a link.

Persistent audio: Media will now continue to play when you switch to a new tab in the same window! You can mute a tab by clicking the ‘volume’ icon on the playing tab.

Improved New Tab Page: Users should see faster load times, regional content, and removal of some shelves.

Improved Fullscreen Media Experience: Users will experience less distracted viewing by detecting idle interaction, preventing on-screen cursor and accidental hand interactions.

Additional changes:

The User Agent string no longer contains the term “SamsungBrowser/4.0”. For details see: https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/web/browser-specs/.

Fixed a bug where some experiences would hang during navigation while in an immersive session.

Bug fixes for more reliable multi-touch and hands interactions.

Security fixes and other minor bug fixes.

Meta Quest Browser 31.2

Experimental features (not available to all users):

Improved New Tab Page: Users should see faster load times, regional content, and removal of some shelves.

Improved Fullscreen Media Experience: Users will experience less distracted viewing by detecting idle interaction, preventing on-screen cursor and accidental hand interactions.

Additional changes:

Security fixes

Reliability fixes

Bug fixes

Oculus Browser 16.2

In Oculus Browser 16.2, we’ve done the following:

Fixed a bug that was causing Chrome Dev Tools to fail to load Source Maps when debugging.

Fixed a bug where WebXR Layer textures were being cleared incorrectly in certain situations.

Fixed a bug where WebXR Hands API would return low-confidence joint information.

Oculus Browser 16.1

In Oculus Browser 16.1, we’ve done the following:

Enabled support for WebXR Layers and Media Layers by default. See this page for more details.

Fixed a bug where the WebXR ‘reset’ event was not handled properly.

Fixed a bug with ‘local’ reference space returning the wrong thing.

Oculus Browser 16.0

In Oculus Browser 16.0, we’ve done the following:

Updated to Chromium version 91 - For more information about new and improved standards support, see Chromium Revisions

Oculus Browser 15.1

In Oculus Browser 15.1, we’ve done the following:

Enable WebXR Hand Tracking API by default instead of as an experimental feature.

Made a change to WebXR Hand Tracking joint orientation to correctly match the WebXR specification. If you were previously using the experimental version of this feature, you may need to update your code and/or hands model.

Oculus Browser 15.0

In Oculus Browser 15.0, we’ve done the following:

Updated to Chromium version 89 - For more information about new and improved standards support, see Chromium Revisions

XRPose now contains linear and angular velocity for controller poses. See the WebXR Spec for more detail.

Oculus Browser 14.0

In Oculus Browser 14.0, we’ve done the following:

Updated to Chromium version 88 - For more information about new and improved standards support, see Chromium Revisions

Oculus Browser 13.0

In Oculus Browser 13.0, we’ve done the following:

Updated to Chromium version 87 - For more information about new and improved standards supporft, see Chromium Revisions

Oculus Browser 12.0

In Oculus Browser 12.0, we’ve done the following:

Updated to Chromium version 86 - For more information about new and improved standards supporft, see Chromium Revisions

Oculus Browser 11.0

In Oculus Browser 11.0, we’ve done the following:

Updated to Chromium version 84 - For more information about new and improved standards support, see Chromium Revisions

New experimental developer support for Hand Tracking.

ThreeJS examples

A-Frame examples

New experimental support for WebXR layers.

WebXR Layers samples

Oculus Browser 10.0

In Oculus Browser 10.0, we’ve done the following:

Updated to Chromium version 83 - For more information about new and improved standards support, see Chromium Revisions.

Oculus Browser 9.0

In Oculus Browser 9.0, we’ve done the following:

Removed WebVR support. Some immersive experiences may no longer work until sites update to the latest WebXR standard

Updated to Chromium version 81 - For more information about new and improved standards support, see Chromium Revisions.

Oculus Browser 8.3

In Oculus Browser 8.3, we’ve done the following:

An entirely new browser interface and experience, designed to be simple, elegant, and efficient.

This feature will only roll out to some users initially, but will eventually become available for everyone.

Oculus Browser now loads desktop sites by default. This mode is better for the large browser windows in VR and desktop sites let you get more done.

You can change the current site you’re on back to mobile mode by clicking a button in the address bar.

This feature will only roll out to some users initially, but will eventually become available for everyone.

Oculus Browser 8.2

In Oculus Browser 8.2, we’ve done the following:

Improvements to site compatibility, performance, and security

Oculus Browser 8.1

In Oculus Browser 8.1, we’ve done the following:

Improvements to site compatibility, performance, and security

WebXR improvements

Fixed incorrect ray rendering for Quest controller models

Added support for squeezestart / squeeze / squeezeend input events

Fixed incorrect visibilitychange event dispatching

Oculus Browser 8.0

In Oculus Browser 8.0, we’ve done the following:

Update to Chromium version 79 - (see Chromium Revisions for new/improved standards support)

General reliability improvements

Experimental changes: controller emulation for Hand Tracking:

WebVR / WebXR experiences can be used with Hand Tracking by enabling “WebXR / WebVR experiences with Hands Tracking” option in about://flags

Hands will be represented as VR controllers in 3 different modes: “gaze and pinch,” “pointers only” and “hands and pointers”

Added fixed foveation, high/low refresh rate features to WebXR

Fixed wrong order of selectstart / select / selectend events in WebXR

Improved performance for WebVR / WebXR experiences which set “alpha” WebGL context flag to “false”

Enabled high-quality distortion for WebVR/WebXR experiences on Oculus Quest

Enabled usage of framebufferScaleFactor with values different from 1.0; getNativeFramebufferScaleFactor() now reports the proper value too (was 1.0 all the time)

Oculus Browser 7.1

In Oculus Browser 7.1, we’ve done the following:

General reliability improvements.

Added WebXR Gamepad module support for Quest.

Fixed an issue with OVR_multiview2 WebGL extension that was reported as WebGL 1. Several broken THREE.JS examples should now work properly with this fix in place.

Oculus Browser 7.0

In Oculus Browser 7.0, we’ve done the following:

Updated to Chromium version 77. See Chromium Revisions for new/improved standards support.

WebXR is enabled by default. Now both WebVR and WebXR are enabled. For more details see Using WebVR on WebXR Enabled Browsers.

Fixed jittery rendering issue in WebVR / WebXR.

Fixed issue with reading incorrect poses of VR controllers in WebVR which caused jittery rendering of VR controller models.

Improved startup times.

Fixed intermittent microphone issue.

Made general reliability improvements.

Oculus Browser 6.2

In Oculus Browser 6.2, we’ve done the following:

Added 60 FPS display support for enhanced media playback quality in full-screen mode.

Changed the pointer type from a stylus to a finger.

Enabled control of the page zoom level. To change the zoom level, click on the browser-resize button in the address bar. The zoom level you select will apply to all pages on that domain. An example of a domain is facebook.com or instagram.com.

Provided users with an option to opt-out of browser telemetry and updated the Privacy Policy FAQ to include browser data collection and usage practices.

Oculus Browser 6.2

In Oculus Browser 6.2, we’ve done the following:

Added 60 FPS display support for enhanced media playback quality in full-screen mode.

Changed the pointer type from a stylus to a finger.

Provided users with an option to opt-out of browser telemetry and updated the Privacy Policy FAQ to include browser data collection and usage practices.

Oculus Browser 6.1

In Oculus Browser 6.1, we’ve done the following:

Launching Oculus Browser is now faster

New About Oculus Browser dialog in Settings for version numbers, privacy policy, and terms of service information

Improvements to site compatibility

Oculus Browser 6.0

In Oculus Browser 6.0, we’ve done the following:

Oculus Browser now uses zero-copy timewarp layers to reduce buffer copies and improve performance across all scenarios, including media playback.

Update to Chromium version 74 with nearly 200 new/improved developer APIs, note some APIs are not applicable to VR but highlights include:

Animation Worklet (experimental) - high-performance scripted animations that run off main rendering thread.

OffscreenCanvas - canvas rendering context (2D+WebGL 3D) to be used in worker threads for higher performance graphics.

Opus in MP4 with MSE - allows Opus audio codec inside the mp4 container in streaming scenarios.

Codec/container switching within MSE - sites can now transition between codecs/containers during streamed playback.

Web Audio Autoplay Policy - Web Audio now follows the same policies as other scenarios when it comes to whether pages can autoplay sound.

User Activation Query API - let’s pages query if the current task was triggered by user interaction, helpful in scenarios like initiating WebVR where user interaction is required.

Unified Plan SDP - new format for the data exchange used in setting up WebRTC connections/calls

Deprecation of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for security (to be removed in 2020)

Oculus Browser 5.9

In Oculus Browser 5.9, we’ve done the following:

Overhauled the look and feel of Oculus Browser to a design that is more comfortable and intuitive.

Added easy-to-understand drop-down menus for selecting 180, 360, and 3D video formats when a user is watching fullscreen video.

Known Issue:

Some users may experience install errors when upgrading to the latest version. These errors occur when the browser is launched via the Library. A work-around is to launch the browser from the Universal Menu. To do this, press the Oculus button on the controller and select the Browser from the menu that appears.

Oculus Browser 5.8

In Oculus Browser 5.8, we’ve done the following:

Revamped the New Tab Page with a new experience that contains shortcuts to popular sites, curated VR experiences from the web, and VR media from you, your friends, and groups on Facebook.

Provided a feature to enable users to save immersive content (360 Videos, 360 Photos, 3D Photos, 360 Experiences) from the Facebook app on Android and view them later from an Oculus headset in Home, or through the Saved section in Library. When you open up saved content on your headset, the content will launch automatically from Oculus Browser.

Improved the overall media experience. You will now notice a significantly improved playback experience with better battery life.

Oculus Browser 5.7

In Oculus Browser 5.7, we’ve done the following:

Fixed bugs and improved reliability.

Oculus Browser 5.4

Oculus Browser 5.4 has the following changes:

WebXR is now available under an experimental feature flag.

Developers can now use WebGL multiview by default. Multiview (prefixed by ovr) can dramatically improve performance in CPU bound experiences.

Added a Permissions Dialog feature so you can manage permissions across the different sites that you visit. You can access this feature by clicking the lock icon on the address for any site that requests permissions.

Fixed bugs and improved reliability.

Oculus Browser 5.2

Oculus Browser 5.2 has the following changes:

Fixed scrolling on download list.

Fixed issue where the layout of media controls was not aligned with the screen size.

Fixed issue where there would be persistent dimming on the screen.

Improved the Desktop mode button tooltip text to more clearly identify what mode you’re in.

Fixed notification bar input issues.

Tooltip for switching to Desktop Mode has now been localized for additional languages.

Fixed stale WebVR rendering when quick vr-to-vr navigation is happening.

Fixed “WebGL hits a snag” issue caused by incorrect shutdown of WebVR SurfaceTexture during vr-to-vr navigation.

Oculus Browser 5.0

The Oculus Browser 5.0 release includes updates from Chromium 62, 63, 64, 65, and 66 as described below.

CSS manipulation is easier with the new CSS Typed Model Object.

New rendering context for canvas elements.

TextArea and Select now support the autocomplete attribute.

You can set autocapitalize on a form element to apply the attribute to any child form fields, which improves compatibility with Safari’s implementation of autocapitalize.

trimStart() and trimEnd() provided as the standards-based way of trimming whitespace from strings.

The CSS Paint API enables you to programmatically generate an image.

The Server Timing API enables web servers to provide performance timing information via HTTP headers.

New CSS display: contents property makes boxes disappear.

The syntax for specifying HSL/HSLA and RGB/RGBAcoordinates for the color property now match the CSS Color 4 spec.

New feature policy that enables you to control synchronous XHRs through an HTTP header or the iframe allow attribute.

Support for ResizeObservers, which notifies you when an element’s content rectangle has changed its size.

Modules can now access host-specific metadata with import.meta.

Oculus Browser now supports named captures and Unicode property escapes in regular expressions.

The default preload value for <audio > and <video > elements is now metadata. This brings Chrome in line with other browsers and helps to reduce bandwidth and resource usage by only loading the metadata and not the media itself.

You can now use Request.prototype.cache to view the cache mode of a Request and determine whether a request is a reload request.

The addition of the preventScroll attribute enables you to now focus an element without scrolling to it when you use the focus management API.

Oculus Browser allows you to import JavaScript modules dynamically.

Async iterators and generators have been added.

You can override the browser’s default overflow scroll behavior with the CSS overscroll-behavior property.

finally is now available on Promise instances and is invoked after a Promise has been fulfilled or rejected.

The Intl.PluralRules API enables you to build applications that understand pluralization of a given language by indicating which plural form applies for a given number, and language. And can help with ordinal numbers.

Support for OpenType variable fonts has been added.

You can capture media streams from HTML Media elements.

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