It’s time to beta test Meta’s greatest technological innovation since the News Feed: legs. Now on Meta Quest headsets, you can download an update that lets you walk on two feet, just like our ancient ancestor, the Ardipithecus ramidus, an early hominid that achieved bipedality 4.4 million years ago. Now it comes full circle.
When Meta launched its suite of virtual reality social products, its avatars did not have legs, instead hovering as disembodied torsos. Now our digital likenesses can finally get back on their feet. So far, users report that they only have legs in Horizon Home, the area where you find yourself when you first turn on your headset.
While Quest headsets support hand tracking, a technology that allows users to essentially use their hands instead of controllers, it doesn’t track leg and foot movements. This makes it harder to create legged avatars that feel at least a little bit natural. Early testers say that you can only see legs in third person, not first person, which is supposed to make the visual a little less jarring.s
Mark Zuckerberg first announced that Meta was working on legs last October. Perhaps now this feature will get up and running before Meta’s next Connect event in September.