Microsoft Office now available on Meta Quest

If you own a Meta Quest VR headset and have ever wanted the opportunity to get work done in virtual reality, then today is your lucky day. While I can’t think of a use case for accessing Excel spreadsheets on a Meta Quest VR headset, that’s probably beside the point. Head below for more details.

The Microsoft to Meta pipeline

In October 2022 at Meta Connect, Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg was joined by Microsoft chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella, to announce their plans regarding the future of their work together. Zuckerberg expressed that the partnership with Microsoft will bring “powerful new work and productivity tools,” including:

• Microsoft Teams immersive meeting experiences for Meta Quest: Connect, share, and collaborate in Teams immersive experiences.
• Microsoft Windows 365 for Meta Quest: Stream the Windows experience on Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2 devices, and access your personalized apps, content, and settings in VR.
• Microsoft 365 app experiences for Meta Quest: Interact with 2D content from Sharepoint or productivity apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook directly from Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2.
• Microsoft Teams/Workrooms integration: Join a Teams meeting from inside Workrooms.
• Meta Avatars in Microsoft Teams: Use your Meta Avatar in Teams for whiteboarding, brainstorming, and meetups.

Microsoft was especially excited about this partnership with Meta as it gives users the opportunity to collaborate with coworkers and teammates, combining the physical and virtual worlds.

While not yet available, at Meta Connect 2022, it was also promised that Teams, Outlook, and Windows would be available on Meta as well.

Microsoft on Meta now available

Over the weekend, the entire Meta Quest lineup – the original Oculus Quest, the Meta Quest 2, the Meta Quest Pro, and the Meta Quest 3 – gained access to the evergreen office management suite, Microsoft Office 365. Users can download Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Powerpoint for free from the Meta Quest store. You could, in theory, do a workout in virtual reality while editing a Powerpoint for work – what a time to be alive.

All three applications – Word, Excel, and Powerpoint – run in a mixed-reality environment, meaning users can still see what’s happening around them.

To get the Microsoft applications set up, users need a Microsoft account and will only need to login once to download the three Microsoft applications, which run on the cloud, allowing for high performance on a Quest headset.

More on Meta Quest:

• Meta Quest 3: The 7 best accessories to optimize your VR experience in 2023
• Meta Quest 3 review: Fitness edition
• The 9 best fitness games for Meta Quest 3