Meta’s new ‘Navigator’ system UI has finally been released on all Quest headsets

The new Horizon OS ‘Navigator’ system UI has finally been released on all Quest headsets, more than a year after Meta began testing it publicly.

Since the release of the Oculus Go in 2018, Meta’s standalone VR platform has seen several visual changes, but the general interface architecture has remained essentially the same.

Below you is a floating horizontal menu bar, called the Universal Menu, which displays the time and your device’s battery level on the left, and a mix of shortcuts to pinned and recently launched apps on the right. Almost all operating system interfaces, including core features such as the application library, quick settings, and notifications, open as regular 2D windows and are treated like any other, meaning that a regular 2D application replaces these core interfaces.

Imagine if your phone’s application library, or the Control Center, or the Windows Start Menu were just another windowed application. That’s how Meta’s XR platform worked.

Then, in May last year, Meta very slowly began a full Horizon OS UI overhaul called ‘Navigator’, which moves key system interfaces such as the library, quick settings, notifications and camera onto a new, larger overlay.

With Navigator, system interfaces no longer change when opening other windows, and launching new applications is much faster because the library is the default UI panel.

Navigator has undergone several refinements since its rough initial version. For example, it originally had a dark gray background with an oval shape that severely obscured your view of what was behind it, which was not good, and this was replaced by simply blurring the background.

Navigator launched with both apps and Horizon Worlds listed in the central launcher interface, and without the friends list interface.

In October, Meta added a separate Worlds tab, meaning the app library wasn’t contaminated by Horizon Worlds. Earlier this year, following the announcement that Horizon Worlds was moving away from VR, Meta completely removed the Worlds tab from Navigator.

Missing from the Meta Horizon feed

As of June 2026, the 7 tabs of Horizon OS Navigator are now as follows:

• You: Allows you to switch users, set your online status, and has shortcuts to edit your avatar and profile.
• Notifications
• People: A grid of your friends, linking their profiles.
• Application library
• Quick Controls: Brightness, Volume, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Screenshots/Recording, Travel Mode and other important settings & toggles.
• Show/Hide Windows
• Switch between Passthrough & VR Home

In App Library, you can now move app icons wherever you want, and create folders to organize them just like you can in any other major consumer operating system.

Arguably, Navigator’s biggest remaining shortcoming is that it still doesn’t fully incorporate all system-level features as part of the overlay. In the bullets above, by “shortcuts” we mean that it opens a regular 2D window straight from the previous Horizon OS interface paradigm. With the same problems. It’s a bit surprising to see the meta role navigator so widely before solving this. But it’s still a net improvement over what came before.

I’m actively writing on UploadVR again, and this article is one of a series of “catch ups” in which I report on some of the most interesting things happening in the industry in recent months. Yes, VR Download is coming back soon!