Meta Quest 3 update finally lets you read other screens through your screen

Colour passthrough is a big part of Meta Quest 3. Pre-release videos showed off the feature in impressive detail. Some claimed that they could not only move around easily but even read a book or their phone while wearing the VR headset. It sounds needless, but let’s be honest: Tech is about efficiency. Not having to move a headset off of your eyes to see who’s blowing up your handset is, well, handy.

While some users may well have experienced that, most of us see a colour passthrough that’s far from the claims. Maybe it’s lighting; maybe it’s a weird software thing; maybe it’s Maybelline; who knows? The key thing, though, is that it could be about to change if one beta user is correct.

Twitter user @mewokoteeq posted two videos to the site at the same time in a single post. The post states that, “twitter will ruin the clarity, but trust me it doesn’t matter here. What changed is the dynamic range and colours. You can finally read from screens!!” Twitter does butcher the image quality, but it’s still pretty clear that the phone screen in the second video is actually legible.

The second video comes from v64.0.0.349.370.581241269, which is the catchy name for the latest Meta Quest 3 beta update. That means this patch will arrive at some point in the future and is currently in the testing stages. You could always jump into the PTC (public test channel) yourself, but we’d generally recommend against it. Betas in VR can be a little stomach-churning. After all, things going wrong normally is irksome, but in VR you’re betting your body on it all being smooth.

The substantial upgrade would not only make the colour passthrough more useable just for checking your phone. It’ll no doubt come in handy when engaging in mixed-reality gaming or app usage. Colour passthrough has always been strong with Meta Quest 3, but every upgrade it gets turns it from a fun gimmick in some games like Demeo into something that’s a huge draw for new users. It’ll be especially interesting to see if the rumoured Quest 3S upholds the quality.