Meta’s promised Quest 2 performance enhancements arrive with version 55 update

Mark Zuckerberg announced the Meta Quest 3 VR headset at the beginning of this month, which should bring enhanced capabilities for those who want to upgrade their Quest 2. But that more performant Quest 3 won’t be here until September, so in the meantime, Meta promised a future update will boost the Quest 2’s (and Quest Pro’s) performance and keep the hardware supported for much longer.

Meta is now rolling out those changes in the v55 update. The Quest 2 will get a 19 percent GPU speed increase while Quest Pro owners will get an 11 percent jump. Both of the VR headsets are also getting up to 26 percent performance increases in CPU power as well, according to Meta.

The performance upgrades should give users overall smoother game performance and a more responsive system UI, Meta says, and the company is also adding Dynamic Resolution Scaling that lets applications take advantage of more pixel density with consistent frame rates.

Developers will also be able to update their games and apps to take advantage of the performance gains. Meta’s blog post includes a sample video of The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners enjoying a higher resolution thanks to the headset performance updates.

The v55 update also has some new software experiences. The Explore tab now encapsulates Meta’s media content, including short-form videos and content from your Facebook and Instagram accounts, and as previously tested, Reels. Meta Horizon Worlds also has new places to explore, along with new Avatar digital outfits. The new Explore part of the update is rolling out “gradually” to users now.

In version 54 of the Meta Quest software, the company had introduced notifications from non-VR apps, including ones from Messenger. Now in v55, Meta is adding a standalone Messenger app in VR so you can communicate with friends without needing to take your headset off and pull out your smartphone.

Finally, Meta Quest Browser is getting multi-touch gesture support that lets you zoom in and out and interact with elements with not just the Touch controllers but also with only hand gestures. It’s like getting a taste of the hand controls available in another upcoming headset.