Meta’s VR social platform is getting a new feature to help you show off what a fun time you’re having in the so-called “metaverse” with all your Instagram and Facebook followers. With its v108 update, Horizon Worlds can now share photos and videos directly to your story on either platform. Meta is also using the update to test a couple of tweaks to the service’s safe zone feature.
It’s previously been possible to share content from Horizon Worlds to Reels — Instagram and Facebook’s TikTok-style vertical video feed feature — as reported by TechCrunch last October. But now you also have the option of posting Horizon Worlds’ Wii-level graphics to Meta’s stories, where they can sit alongside real-world photographs of holidays, meals, and days out.
Meta says the new story-sharing option is starting as a limited test for around 50 percent of Horizon Worlds’ users, but that it should get a wider rollout throughout the course of this month. The sharing feature can be accessed from the Media Gallery or Horizon Camera.
Alongside it, Meta is also testing a tweaked version of the Horizon Worlds’ safe zone, a feature designed to let users step away from the VR social space when things get heated and hectic. As part of the test, the safe zone will show more details of the world around the user, and offer fuller access to user profiles and other menus.
I suspect this won’t be the last time Meta tries to make its various services more interoperable, especially if it can succeed in creating any degree of FOMO among Instagram users about Horizon Worlds. But based on our experience trying out its social VR space when we reviewed the Quest Pro headset last year, there are more fundamental issues with Horizon Worlds that need to be addressed first.
