Work Beyond the Desktop: Microsoft Office Unchained in VR with Meta Quest Debut

Citing sources such as UploadVR and MIXED, Microsoft has finally introduced the essential Office trio – Word, Excel, and PowerPoint – to the Meta Quest Store. This development was initially announced at the 2022 Meta Connect conference, but it’s only now that these applications have been officially made available in the store.

According to the store page, these applications are compatible with various headsets from Quest to Quest 3 and support gesture tracking as well as keyboard tracking. This means users can type using a physical Bluetooth keyboard and use their hands as a mouse, eliminating the need for Touch controllers. These applications will appear in a 2D format within the headsets, thereby also supporting the Quest’s multi-window operation feature.

It’s also noteworthy that these three applications require minimal space, each occupying just 2.31MB. They necessitate an internet connection for use, indicating that they are essentially Progressive Web Applications (PWA). In a sense, they act as shortcuts, directly accessing the web version of Office. As for the cost, while the applications are free to obtain, users must have a Microsoft 365 subscription to utilize them.

Earlier, Microsoft introduced Xbox cloud gaming to the Quest store. As per Microsoft CEO’s remarks at the Meta Connect 2022 conference, we can anticipate the arrival of more Microsoft applications, like Windows 365 Cloud PC, on Quest devices in the future.

As an aside, while the concept of VR office work sounds intriguing, wearing headsets, especially ones like the Quest 2, for extended periods can be quite taxing. Additionally, the battery life of the headset is another factor worth considering.