Office apps come to Meta’s Quest devices, but real-world use will take time
Microsoft’s office productivity apps can now be accessed on Meta’s Quest headsets, offering access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint in mixed and virtual reality spaces. Though office workers are unlikely to swap laptops for mixed-reality devices until the hardware improves, analysts see potential being able to access productivity tools on multiple virtual screens.
At Meta Connect in 2022, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced plans to bring Office apps and Windows 365 cloud desktops to Quest devices. After more than a year in a development, Word, Excel, PowerPoint became generally available last week on Quest, Quest 2, Quest and Quest Pro headsets, as noted by Android Central. These are web versions of the three apps hosted in the cloud, rather than native apps with any virtual or mixed reality-specific features. Once logged into a Microsoft account, users can interact with the apps either via hand-tracking gestures, or, more suitable for productivity tasks, a Bluetooth-connected keyboard and mouse.