Typically, when a company overhauls the UI of their products, the new design focuses on fixing issues that people complained about in the older version. The meta is working on it it’s been two yearsbut the end result didn’t quite get the reception Meta had hoped for.
Since the update started rolling out to everyone a few weeks ago, I’ve had countless messages from friends (and parents of my son’s friends) asking how to go back to the old UI. The answer is…you can’t. The questions that follow usually revolve around how to do all the things they do every day, as many of the most common tasks now require a few extra clicks or menu options to find.
Meta designed this new Navigator UI to make it easier to jump into VR experiences in record time, as it says. It absolutely achieves that goal, but like when you prioritize any particular feature, everything else suffers because of it. If you are confused by the new year Meta Quest If you can’t figure out the UI and what to do, here are some tips and tricks to get you going.
Take those floating windows away from me
Meta’s Navigator UI launched with a new two-tiered window system that immediately bothered many people. Pressing the Meta/home button on the right controller now always brings up the app launcher, but all other system windows and apps run in floating windows. The problem is that pressing the Meta/home button again does not hide the windows; only hides the app launcher.
Meta has also completely redesigned the bottom universal menu bar, which no longer allows you to pin apps, quickly close floating windows, and use the virtual camera. Instead, you will need double click the Meta/home button on the right controller to hide floating windows. It’s possible that Meta explained it in one of those pop-up tutorial windows, but a lot of people don’t read them, and hiding such an important feature behind a weird gesture is forcing users. a lot hurts.
Some versions of the Navigator UI now include a virtual “hide windows” button in the app launcher hotbar, which is at least a modest improvement over that awful two-layer design, but it’s still a lot of keypresses to accomplish what a home button used to do.
How to update, pin or uninstall the app
In the old app launcher, each app or game icon had a three-dot menu button in the upper-right corner that allowed you to perform additional actions within that app. Things like pinning an app to the hotbar, updating it, checking permissions or even uninstalling were all in a pretty clear place that resembled a smartphone user interface. Launching the Navigator application simply displays a series of icons with no obvious additional actions.
To find this hidden menu hover your cursor over the app or game iconafter hold down the trigger button on your controller until the menu appears. From here, you can pin an app to the top of the app drawer, lock it from changes, hide it (usually used for games you own but no longer play), update it, adjust settings, go to the store page (see details), or delete it (remove from library).
It’s another UI change that hides common actions, and it’s frankly surprising how it got the green light from testing.
Closing the program
Believe it or not, I should write a tutorial on how to close a running program. That’s how bad this new UI is. When playing an immersive game in the previous UI, you could press the Meta/home button and then click the Exit button in the menu that appears. It was simple! It was easy! But Meta had to go and make things difficult.
Pressing the Meta/home button on the navigator simply opens the app launcher. You can click on another immersive game or app that will automatically close an open immersive app, but sometimes you don’t want to jump from app to app.
Instead, you will need: Press the Meta/home button on the right controller to open the app launcher, look at the row of small icons in the hotbar below the app launcher. you should see the symbol for running program. Go ahead and click that, then get out in the menu that appears. Still, a common action that used to be a single click now requires additional steps.
How to take a screenshot, record a video or broadcast to TV
In case you haven’t figured it out by now, here are three common Camera tasks a few additional clicks to perform in the new Navigator UI. To save time, there are three ways to take a screenshot, record a video or broadcast to your TV:
1. press the button Meta/home button on the right controller to open the app launcher. Tap the pink/orange camera iconthen click the action you want to perform. This is the easiest way to stream to TV.
2. If you can’t find the camera in the app drawer, you can click on it Quick Settings iconlocated in the hotbar at the bottom of the app launcher. Then you will click on it camera icon in the row of icons to open the camera drawer. This is the second fastest way to stream to TV.
3. For quick pick up screenshot in some of them for games, press and hold the Meta/home button, then quickly press the trigger on the same controller.
4. For quick make a video in some of them for games, press and hold the Meta/home button, then press and hold the trigger on the same controller until you hear “start recording.” Perform the same home button/trigger combination to pause the video.
I’m already tired and I’m sure you are too. On the bright side, it offers a new camera bar that appears when you follow steps 1 and 2 above a lot more functionality than the old menu. Click on camera settings in that menu and play with the available options! You can change the recording camera to third-person view by default, make it Instagram-ready with a 9:16 aspect ratio, add image stabilization, and more. you can
Where did the settings go?
Finding settings used to be a fairly simple task. You’d press the home button, then tap quick settings and the big, cute button Parameters button will be there. The new UI didn’t change these steps much, but the settings button did absolutely small and almost impossible to see. I don’t know why Meta wants to hide it, but here’s how to find it:
1. press the button Meta/home button on the right controller to open the app launcher.
2. hit quick settings icon in the hotbar below the app launcher.
3. When the quick settings appear, look for the small ones gear icon To the left of the Wi-Fi icon, then tap it to open settings.
It’s just not good…
Look, I don’t like to complain about updates or UI changes, because most of the time, even the most dramatic changes can be positive changes once you get used to them. But Navigator is something completely different. While it does launch apps a bit faster, it does so at the expense of almost every other activity that Meta Quest players typically do.
Meta received a lot of criticism for this update during the testing phase, including lots of posts on social media, their forums, and feedback through the official process, but they still went through and rolled out the new UI to everyone without making any fundamental changes.
There is meta big problem with buggy updates in the past and although this is not an update cartit’s bad in a very different way. The only way to undo menu changes is to use Quest Games Optimizeryou have to sideload it, but the app also opens up a lot of customization and performance options that aren’t available otherwise. QGO is a really great app that I use every time I play Quest, but even if you don’t get it, at least you know how to get things done in the new Navigator UI.
