The Meta Quest 3 finally has the AR glasses feature I wanted, but it’s far from perfect
Meta has announced an upgrade for Meta Quest 3 that I was really hoping would be released, however the new HDMI Link app doesn’t offer the easy implementation I was hoping for.
The free HDMI Link app, announced in a blog post, lets you use your Quest 3, Quest 2, or Quest Pro as a screen for any device you’re connected to via HDMI or DisplayPort. The catch, though, is that you’ll need additional hardware. When I saw the announcement, I was excited—but then I started reading.
In the world of the best smart glasses, wired connections are much more common. The Xreal Air 2 models connect to your phone or console via a USB-C to USB-C cable (and an adapter if necessary) to display your screen on a giant virtual display. And that’s a feature I’ve been dying to see on the Meta Quest 3, as it would make one of my favorite XR devices just that little bit more useful.
The idea is simple enough, and works like those AR smart glasses. Well… almost. You launch the HDMI Link app, then connect your Meta Quest headset to devices with an HDMI or DisplayPort output. There’s one final piece, though; between the headset and the external device, you need a capture card—more specifically, a UVC and UAC compatible capture card.
I’ve tried using just a USB-C cable with my DisplayPort compatible phone and even with the Xreal Beam Pro, but to no avail – the app window specifically indicates the presence of a capture card, probably because the required hardware is missing from the Meta Quest 3.
First steps
Unfortunately, I don’t have a capture card to test this new feature at the moment. I hope to get one soon so you can hear my first-hand experience. But this just goes to show how difficult this approach is.
Currently, Meta doesn’t make an official product you can buy to use this HDMI link feature. Its own blog post simply states that you’ll need “additional third-party hardware.” It doesn’t even point you to a Meta-recommended capture card, which will put off anyone who isn’t tech-savvy.
And unless you’re a gaming content creator, you probably don’t have a capture card lying around.
This is definitely a great new feature for the Meta Quest 3 headset – it’s just a shame that it’s not quite what I was hoping for. Its unfinished nature is perhaps why the HDMI Link app isn’t found in the official Quest Store – it’s instead in Meta’s App Lab store.
Finding it on your Quest 3 is easy. Just use the store’s search bar and search for “HDMI Link”. The free program will be waiting for you, so if you have a capture card, you can try it out right away.
