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VR Fitness App ‘Supernatural’ Re-launches into Early Access on Quest Following Meta Spin-out

From roadtovr

Supernatural, the VR fitness app, has launched—or rather, re-launched—into early access on Quest today following a spin-out from Meta earlier this summer.

Supernatural is a subscription-based fitness app that’s all about dodging, squatting, batting (and punching) orbs to the beat—and burning some serious calories in the process. And Supernatural Health, the 15-person independent team behind the app, have now launched it in early access on Quest.

Early access is said to already feature thousands of workouts, including what the studio calls “remastered favorites” alongside new workouts. That comes along with hundreds of tracks, a new Laguna Torre home environment, and household accounts supporting up to four people on one headset, the studio says.

Throughout early access, the studio says it will be adding more workouts, music, and environments on a rolling basis.

Previous members will be able to bring their previous workout history, which includes transferring points, start date, streaks, favorites and badges from the original app through December 3rd. Users will also be able to keep an eye on progress with a new mobile companion app.

“It’s not every day you get to make a comeback, but thanks to the Supernatural community, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” said Supernatural CEO James Senior. “Early Access gets Supernatural back into members’ hands now, so we can build what comes next with them. We’ll be adding new workouts every week, bringing back more music and building features like Supernatural Together and a new mobile app. This is just the start.”

The app is free to download from the Horizon Store and supports Quest 2 and above. A subscription is required however, costing $20 per month or $200 per year, with 7-day and 14-day free trials, respectively. For now, the service is only available in the US and Canada.

This follows a long stint in ‘maintenance mode’, as Meta announced in June it was spinning out the VR fitness app into the now independent company Supernatural Health.

Notably, the legacy edition of Supernatural is no longer publicly searchable on the Quest Store, and will be winding down on December 3rd, which includes all associated subscriptions.

OpenXR Takes a Page From Apple With New Cross-Platform Spatial Multitasking API

From roadtovr

OpenXR is an open, royalty-free standard which provides a single, unified interface for developing VR and AR applications. Most XR platforms support it—excluding Apple, which uses its own APIs for Vision Pro. While that hasn’t changed, OpenXR seems to have taken a page out of Apple’s playbook with a new multitasking spatial app framework.

The Khronos Group, which leads development on OpenXR, announced it’s set to roll out a set of extensions soon that include new “spatial containers.” Spatial containers are system-managed spaces where apps can display XR content, similar to how traditional apps draw 2D content within windows on a desktop.

As seen in the short clip below, this will essentially allow for apps to switch between a “bounded” mode for multitasking and an “immersive” mode that takes up the full screen, The Khronos Group says.

It’s admittedly very similar to how visionOS handles multitasking via its Shared Space function, which is basically a spatial desktop that allows multiple 3D applications to live side-by-side and be moved around by the user. Apple Vision Pro has had this feature since launch in 2024.

This comes in contrast to how multitasking works on Quest today, wherein only one spatial app can run at a time, albeit alongside system-level stuff, such as the dashboard, browser, and other multitasked 2D windows.

The Khronos Group says the new extensions have been ratified and published, with implementations expected to begin rolling out across the OpenXR ecosystem during 2026.

Granted, its release doesn’t mean all existing headsets will immediately support it, although it’s a good bet we’ll begin seeing implementations soon from the cadre of OpenXR-supported headsets, which thus far include Meta Quest, SteamVR-compatible PC VR headsets and Steam Frame, Android XR-based headsets, Varjo, Magic Leap, and XREAL glasses.

You can check out the full list here, which of course doesn’t include Apple.

Steam Frame OLED Version Surfaces in Source Code, Suggesting a Possible Hardware Refresh

From roadtovr

Valve’s Steam Frame is barely out the door, but now data mining has reportedly surfaced that an OLED version may already in the works.

The News

As reported by Steam Frame Hub, Valve may be working on a new version of Steam Frame, which much like Steam Deck, may include OLED panels instead of LCD.

The codename ‘Plano’ has appeared in Valve’s publicly released Steam Frame kernel source code, describing a ‘Deckard’ (codename for Steam Frame) with a 3,552 × 3,840 per eye resolution OLED, and refresh rate of up to 90Hz, and 120Hz experimental mode.

That comes in contrast to Steam Frame’s 2,160 × 2,160 per eye resolution LCD panel, which includes 72-120Hz refresh rate (144Hz experimental).

Courtesy Steam Frame Hub

Steam Frame Hub maintains that while native pixel counts are impressively high, essentially the same as Samsung Galaxy XR, the default resolution appears to be half that: 1,776 × 1,920.

That would essentially allow Valve to hit roughly the same performance target as the standard Steam Frame, as the kernel source code appears to show Plano uses the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset as the current model.

Development on the repository reportedly continued through October 2nd, 2026, weeks after Steam Frame pre-orders opened on September 14th. That suggests the project remained active after the headset’s launch, although it doesn’t establish whether Plano is a separate product or an experimental hardware configuration.

My Take

Valve may well be following the same playbook as Deck, which was first released in February 2022 with an LCD version, followed by an OLED version in November 2023. Still, there are a few possible explanations beyond a mid-generation Steam Frame OLED refresh.

An alt display config could have been evaluated during development, and subsequently abandoned. Valve may also be simply internal testing right now, which doesn’t mean it will necessarily be productized—soon, or ever.

Road to VR

Notably, the name Deckard appeared more or less the same way, albeit in 2021. That’s ‘Valve Time’ for you, so hoping for a speedy release of an OLED version of Steam Frame really isn’t something I’d count on right now.

As it is, Steam Frame backorders have already stretched in 2027. If Valve wants to follow the same playbook as Deck, the company would ideally need to ramp up production, catch up with demand, make it available without reservations, and establish strong appetite for another Steam Frame before it can release anything else. A lot of that hinges on the device’s popularity, which still remains to be seen since there are still so few in the wild.

Steam Frame Backorder Queue Stretches into 2027

From roadtovr

Getting a Steam Frame for the holidays could be a bit dicey, as Valve says the order queue has now stretched into 2027.

Valve says in a news update that customers hoping to get their hands on Steam Frame, the recently launched standalone VR headset, can now view their expected order window by going directly to the Steam Frame product page while logged in to your Steam account.

Order emails are being sent out either by December or in 2027, Valve says, with those in the 2027 camp due to receive further information on their expected order timing by January.

As for customers who haven’t made it out of the interminable waiting list, Valve says that info will be sent out if spots open up; places on the waiting list are sequential, so the later you join, the further you are down the list.

Notably, Valve highlights that there are separate queues for each region, which means some users could move up the waiting list and order list more quickly than others.

“Importantly, no one on the waitlist is leapfrogging over anyone currently holding a reservation; we’re only dipping into waitlists in a region when we reach the end of its reservation queue,” Valve says.

Still on the fence? Check out our Everything You Should Know Before Buying Steam Frame article for a few pointers.

Norway Proposes Temporary Ban on Smart Glasses in Public Places

From roadtovr

The Norwegian government announced it’s aiming to introduce a temporary ban on smart glasses in a number of public locations, citing privacy as the main concern.

While the government says the temporary ban is a high priority, it must still be introduced as legislation and approved by Norway’s parliament, so its passage—and the scope of any eventual ban—aren’t yet certain.

Still, the temporary ban could prohibit the use of smart glasses (called ‘AI glasses’ in the official bulletin) in a number of public locations in the country, such as parks, beaches, museums, shopping malls and public events.

Norway’s Ministry of Digitization and Public Administration maintains the temporary ban could extend to a number of other spaces as well.

Places and events for children, such as schools, kindergartens, playgrounds and leisure clubs are possibilities. The ministry also says health institutions and training facilities with changing rooms and showers, in addition to universities, colleges and other educational institutions are currently under consideration as well.

Gentle Monster Smart Glasses | Courtesy Google & Samsung

Notably, Norway’s government says it’s not proposing an outright ban on smart glasses and other wearables; those devices will still be allowed in certain places in addition to purely private use, for example if you’re traveling somewhere that doesn’t inherently include the risk of filming or photographing other people without their consent.

“I am concerned that new, powerful technology is being introduced where people risk being photographed, filmed or audio recorded without their knowledge,” says Minister of Digitalization and Public Administration Torgeir Micaelsen. “We will therefore propose a temporary ban on AI glasses in selected places. This will give us time to conduct a thorough investigation and have an informed debate that can lay a good foundation for lasting regulation.”

Additionally, Micaelsen maintains the ban is effort to curb the creation of a society “where people are concerned about hidden audio recordings, photography and filming in places and situations where they are used to being without being monitored. Such a society can be experienced as unsafe and make us withdraw.”

Meanwhile, a special council will be established to look at permanent national regulation of wearable technology. It’s not clear at this time whether that includes audio-only smart glasses as well, like those introduced by Meta late last month.

This comes amid growing scrutiny over smart glasses privacy. New legislation earlier this year in number of US states and cities, including New York state and Philadelphia, has effectively banned camera-equipped smart glasses from a range of public government buildings in those regions.

More recently, Dutch optical eyewear chain Hans Anders halted sales of Meta smart glasses in the Netherlands, citing privacy concerns.

Meanwhile, other companies are now producing competitors to Meta’s slate of smart glasses, which will soon include Google’s Android XR hardware partners Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.

This App Lets You Actually Experience Meta VR Glasses’ Field of View Before You Upgrade

From roadtovr

Meta announced its VR Glasses at Connect last month, which is looking to appeal more to productivity and casual content by virtue of its high pixel density micro-OLED displays. They do however serve up a noticeably lower field of view (FOV), but how noticeable?

As someone who’s gone hands-on with Meta VR Glasses, there’s really no optimal way of describing its FOV. It’s simply one of those “see it to believe it” sort of things.

The company’s tethered standalone, which offers a ~100 g of on-head weight, is coming sometime in Spring 2027. Before you fork over the $1,300 in hopes of an upgrade, you might want to check out its 70-degree horizontal FOV yourself.

To get a good idea, Duuro Plays has put together a WebXR app that you can run on Quest 3 that lets you click between Quest 3’s full FOV and VR Glasses reported FOV, according to Meta.

More precisely: Quest 3 has a 110° horizontal × 96° vertical, which translates to ~119° diagonal FOV. VR Glasses have a 70° horizontal × 66° vertical, which translates to ~88° diagonal FOV. You can see the full spec sheet and launch info here.

If you don’t have a Quest 3, Meta has also published its own developer tool and provided a short clip of it in action. It’s arguably less useful than seeing for yourself, although this should give you some idea:

Note: Quest 3’s larger FOV is thanks to its comparatively bulky pancake lenses, which are placed roughly 40 mm away from large LCD panels. Along with battery and compute, it makes the whole on-head package 515 g.

Contrary to Duuro Play’s explanation in the link above, Meta VR Glasses also use pancake lens optics, albeit smaller ones coupled with micro-OLED panels, and not silicon carbide waveguides as stated in the FAQ. The creator of the tool has confused Meta VR Glasses with the company’s Orion AR glasses prototype.

Samsung FCC Approval Signals Gentle Monster & Warby Parker Smart Glasses Nearing Release

From roadtovr

Samsung’s long-awaited smart glasses have cleared FCC testing, suggesting their release is right around the corner.

The News

Two distinct SM-O200P and SM-O200J have appeared in FCC filings, which is typically one of the last steps before commercialization.

Those two product codes indicate Warby Parker and Gentle Monster frames, respectively, as they’ve been seen on pre-production models viewed by Android Police and others.

Warby Parker Smart Glasses | Courtesy Android Police

It appears multiple frame styles from both the US-based Warby Parker and South Korea’s Gentle Monster will use those specific product codes, including three frame variations from Warby Parker, and two (so far) from Gentle Monster.

Built in collaboration with Samsung and Google, the forthcoming fleet of smart glasses are set to be the first to run Google’s Android XR operating system.

Much like Meta’s range of smart glasses, the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster frames will include onboard cameras, microphones and off-ear speakers for doing things like taking calls, listening to podcasts, and interacting with Google Gemini.

While an official spec sheet isn’t available yet, Samsung’s fleet of smart glasses are said to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset, a single 12MP front-facing camera with indicator LED, and up to 9 hours of use per charge, with a portable charging case providing extra charge.

No pricing or launch date has been announce yet outside of the Fall 2026 release window.

My Take

Samsung is looking to take on Meta’s exponentially growing slate of smart glasses, which thus far not only includes Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Meta-branded camera-clad smart glasses, Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, but also now audio-only smart glasses that omit the camera entirely.

Meta’s multi-year lead over most of the competition will be difficult to shake, so it will be interesting to see whether Samsung’s smart glasses can go beyond simply being the ‘not-Meta’ choice and offer anything meaningfully different.

As a consequence, this will also soon open Samsung to the same public scrutiny that Meta has experienced over the past year, which thus far includes a number of US states and cities taking action to ban the devices from public government buildings. How Samsung (Warby Parker, Gentle Monster and co) handle that will be interesting to watch.

Notably, Meta shipped a mandatory update to Meta Glasses in July that introduces a hardware check when the capture LED has been physically removed or damaged, effectively closing a loophole that let users drill out the privacy light to keep recording while hiding the recording indicator.

Maybe it’s too little, too late for the whole camera-clad smart glasses category? Maybe the whole ‘creeper glasses’ phenomenon is a little overblown? Whatever the case, we’re sure to learn more as Samsung enters the market soon, as the company no doubt hopes to attract a whole new set of fashion-conscious, tech-forward users.

Hands-on: Meta’s ‘Hologram’ Avatars Aim to Take on Apple Personas on VR Glasses

From roadtovr

Meta’s long-promised photorealistic avatars are set to release in the next few months, which the company is calling ‘holograms’. I went hands-on the annual Connect developer conference to see just how Meta plans to take on Apple.

Meta announced it’s finally rolling out its immersive avatars, and they’re coming first to its Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, which includes a single see-through display in the right eye.

Previously called ‘Codec Avatars’, Holograms are coming to the newly announced Meta VR Glasses too, but those are slated to arrive sometime in Spring 2027. You can learn more about Meta VR Glasses in our hands-on from Connect.

I got an opportunity to go hands-on with Holograms on both devices, which proved to be entirely different chatting experiences based on just how different the devices are in the first place.

Note: We have stylized Meta’s holograms with a capital ‘H’ to differentiate its avatars from true holograms.

Creating a ‘Gram

The Hologram creation process… okay. Let’s back up a second. These aren’t holograms by the text book definition, as they aren’t 3D light fields, but rather AI-infused immersive avatars that have more of a 2.5D quality to them. More on that below.

Anyway, the Hologram creation process isn’t the same as creating an Apple Persona, which uses Vision Pro’s built-in depth sensors and RGB camera sensors to scan your face. Instead, you simply use Meta’s iOS or Android mobile app and the phone’s selfie camera as you follow a few on-screen prompts, including improvising an answer to the question “What’s your favorite kind of day?”, reciting a short statement and laughing after it, smiling, and turning your head side to side.

All of that is important since Holograms on Display are driven by voice only, meaning the AI is doing a fair amount of work to make your digital copy act as natural as you’d expect a human to. It’s rolling out first to Display in early access in the coming months, but only in the US for now, and only on WhatsApp video chats.

Holograms on Display

Chatting with another Display-clad user, I noticed fairly quickly my simulacrum wasn’t exactly me. Still, it was close enough that if you didn’t know me, you might actually be fooled.

That said, if you did know me, you’d know I try not to look as consistently annoyed as my avatar does in the video below—I was visibly jetlagged during the capture, and probably feeling a little weird telling a room full of Meta execs my favorite day… which is April 25th by the way, because it’s not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.

Sofien Bouaziz, Senior Director of Research and Engineering at Meta Reality Labs, had a much more convincing Hologram however, which he admitted took a few tries to get to his liking. His was, without exaggeration, indistinguishable from the very live version of him I saw just moments before he ducked into another room for the call. If I wanted to get mine that good, I was told I could try up to 10 times per day to capture and generate an avatar.

Notably, in the lower left-hand corner of the chat, you’ll see a little ghostly Hologram icon so you know when you’re talking to an avatar or the genuine article.

All told, it’s a flatscreen call experience that I think is more for smartphone users than Display users since the visible display in your right eye is so small. Still, it’s a promising bit of tech to help bridge the odd video chat gap inherent to Display.

Holograms on VR Glasses

Now this is where things get interesting. VR Glasses have both eye and face tracking via the headset’s downward-facing sensors. That last part didn’t make the keynote, but it was confirmed in my Hologram demo.

The result: a very realistic full-bodied avatar, which I was told was generated in a similar way to the smartphone face scan, albeit capturing the user head-to-toe. While not confirmed, I suspect the user will also need to do specific moves to give the AI some gesticulations to mimic, such as a neutral hand position as well as broader, more demonstrative gestures.

When asked whether users would be able to skip the mobile app and use the headset itself (Vision Pro-style) to generate an avatar, I was told the company was sticking with the mobile app since it was less physically awkward.

The avatars I saw at Connect had a distinct 2.5D quality to them. They feature stereoscopy, and feel 3D when looking straight on from a respectable distance, but notably lack any sort of real depth, making them more like some sort of 2D projection than a proper 3D avatar, which you’d expect to be able to walk around the room, fist bump, or hand you a virtual object. These can’t do that.

Still, the AI is doing a fair bit of legwork here to make avatars consistently lifelike. Those hand poses, her hair moving, the flapping of her shirt hem when she shifts from one pose to another is all AI.

It’s still early days, so there’s no telling how things can change between now and VR Glasses’ release next year, although the emphasis on not having fully 3D avatars feels like a conscious decision. It’s fairly clear Meta wants to narratively distance itself from its failed metaverse ambitions by not only offering a grownup VR headset, but also grownup VR avatars to match that will probably be good enough for one-on-one chats.

Now, are Holograms better than Apple’s Personas? It depends on what you mean by better. Personas are still floating heads, albeit very realistic floating heads with actual 3D depth. Vision Pro’s face tracking is also uncannily good.

Putting aside Holograms’ lack of 3D depth, what I saw at Connect admittedly looks very good. Still, I’m curious to see how VR Glasses interpret my own micro-expressions before judging whether its AI model is doing too much in service of simply looking like a person.

Disclosure: Meta provided lodging for one Road to VR reporter to attend Meta Connect 2026 where information for this article was gathered.

Watch the Meta Connect 2026 Keynote Right Here

From roadtovr

Meta’s annual XR and AI focused Connect conference kicks off today. The biggest news is expected in the opening keynote, where the company is expected to reveal its ‘Phoenix’ MR headset and latest smartglasses.

Watch the Meta Connect Keynote on September 23rd at 4PM PT

Your timezone here

Meta is playing it close to the vest, teasing the keynote by saying only “join Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he shares how Meta is building a future for everyone.”

However, recent weeks saw a leak of the first clear image of what’s believed to be Meta’s next-gen XR headset, codenamed ‘Phoenix’, which is widely expected it will be revealed during Connect 2026.

Courtesy Luna

What’s unclear is if Phoenix will be positioned as ‘Quest 4’, or part of another product line (similar to Quest Pro being distinct from Quest 1, 2, and 3). And if it isn’t the next-gen consumer Quest, will Meta also reveal a new consumer Quest headset? We’ve got boots on the ground at Connect to bring you all the latest news as it happens.

Watch the Meta Connect Developer State of the Union Keynote on September 24th at 10AM PT

Your timezone here

On day 2 of Connect, Meta will host its Developer State of the Union keynote which is more focused on developers. We expect to hear the latest on developer tools (especially AI-based tooling), programs, and features to make it easier to build content for Meta’s glasses and headsets. We’ll include the livestream above once it’s available.

Beyond the headlining keynotes, the Connect 2026 agenda includes additional sessions along four tracks: VR, AI glasses, AI, and Horizon. Meta has confirmed all of these sessions will be viewable on-demand online once released.

Snap Announces New “anticipatory” AI Service & Apps for First Consumer ‘Specs’ AR Glasses

From roadtovr

Snap today announced new experiences, services and partnerships for SPECS, the company’s upcoming pair of consumer AR glasses.

Snap’s big Specs livestream today wasn’t technically a launch event—they’re still slated to arrive in the US, UK and France later this fall starting at $2,195—although the company did give a little more insight into what sort of software its first pair of consumer AR glasses will have when it does eventually arrive.

Firstly, Snap unveiled Specs Intelligence, or what the company is calling its “anticipatory AI service.”

Specs Intelligence is designed to work across Specs, iPhone and Mac; the company says it draws from connected apps and tools to build context around users’ goals, routines and relationships, then surface relevant info in the user’s field of view without being explicitly prompted.

The company says users will be able to choose what you connect and what information Specs Intelligence can use. In terms of off-device privacy, Snap says Specs Intelligence is “designed so Snap personnel cannot view or access the personal content you use with the service.”

“Personal content from connected accounts will not be used to train or fine-tune Snap’s AI models, or to serve personalized ads,” the company says in a press statement. “SPECS Intelligence uses on-device processing and secure cloud infrastructure, with security protections wherever data is processed.”

A preview is available starting today in the US through the Specs iOS app for users ages 18 and over.

Snap also announced a number new AR experiences across entertainment, education and fitness.

The Specs browser enables streaming from YouTube, HBO Max, and more on a virtual display, something Snap says “feels like a 115-inch cinema screen placed about 10 feet away.” Specs is also coming with Spotify.

Courtesy Snap

In partnership with HBO Max, Snap is also bringing the world of Harry Potter to Specs in time for the new Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which premieres this Christmas.

The company also revealed partnerships with the NBA and WNBA to release an interactive basketball training experience that will provide AR visual guidance, drills, and progress cues.

Courtesy Snap

Other applications include soccer and golf training, an interactive Apollo 11 experience and Starmap, which overlays constellations onto the user’s surroundings, Snap says.

As for multiplayer content, Connected Lenses are said to allow two Specs wearers to share digital experiences in the same physical space, with the first experiences including Dominoes with Jimmy Butler, Chess and Table Tennis.

The company also underlined Specs’ everyday utilities, like real-time translation with support for 60 languages, augmented navigation and TripAdvisor information about nearby restaurants, landmarks and attractions.

A Shopify-powered experience was also announced, letting users view products in 3D at full scale within their surroundings.

While Snap is undoubtedly hoping to appeal to on-the-go users, Specs is also capable of acting as a wireless display for PC or Mac, including support for Bluetooth peripherals such as keyboards.

Courtesy Snap

Notably, Snap says the glasses do not use facial recognition or continuously record audio, video or images. An external LED indicates when the glasses are actively recording.

And if you’re in for a pound, in for a penny: Snap also announced a new Specs Charging Case with Cellular, which not only provides four additional charges but also cellular connectivity.

In the U.S., the connected case bundle costs $2,395, with Verizon offering financing and data plans starting at $10 per month for customers and $20 for non-customers. Snap is also partnering with Orange in France and EE in the UK. You can find all pre-order info over on Specs.com.

If you’re looking to get your hands on Specs before plonking down the full two bands, Snap is also running free demos from October 1st at Snap’s First Look location in Westfield Century City, Los Angeles.