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Test multiple windows

Updated: Aug 31, 2026
Meta Spatial Simulator runs several app panels together. Use it to check how your app behaves when it shares the screen, moves to the background, and comes back.

The control bar

Every app panel has a control bar beneath it. The bar is collapsed into a small pill until you hover it. Expanded, it shows:
  • Back, which navigates back inside the app
  • The app title
  • Close app, which closes the app
A Meta Spatial Simulator app panel with its control bar resting as a small collapsed pill beneath the panel
The same control bar expanded on hover, showing a back arrow, the app title Gallery, and a close button

Go Home

Settings → Go Home minimizes the app in the foreground and returns you to the home screen. The app keeps running in the background.

Window Manager

Window Manager is the overview of everything running. Open it three ways:
  • Settings → Open Window Manager
  • The app-switch key on your keyboard
  • Show all, on the pill that appears when apps are running in the background
The pill reads +N background apps and counts what is running out of view.
The overview pill at the top of the simulator reading plus one background app, with a Show all button beside it
In the overview you get a grid of running apps, where you can:
  • Select a tile to bring that app forward
  • Hover a tile to enlarge it
  • Close a single app with the X in the corner of its tile
  • Close everything with Close all
The Window Manager overview grid, with a Close all button and a close X on the hovered tile

How many panels stay visible

The simulator shows one foreground app plus up to three background panels. Beyond that, apps keep running and stay tracked, but their panels stay hidden until you bring them forward from Window Manager. This ceiling is a limit of the simulator’s screen space, not the app limit on a physical device.
The Store app in the foreground of Meta Spatial Simulator with three dimmed background panels stacked behind it

Child windows

A child window is positioned so the combined parent and child extent stays within the app bounds. It can sit partly or entirely outside its parent panel, so do not rely on it staying within the parent. A child window is destroyed when its parent is.

Immersive apps

The simulator renders 2D panels only. Launching a fully immersive app raises a dialog reading Immersive apps aren’t supported yet, and the app does not start. Test immersive builds on a physical device or the Meta XR Simulator instead.

Drive windows from the command line

Meta VR CLI lists windows and reports which one has focus, and drives the UI for automated testing:
metavr window list
metavr window focus
For the full command set, including ui dump, ui tap, and screen capture, see Work with devices and apps.
Note: For laying out multiple windows from inside your own app, see Meta VR Layout SDK.