The Meta Quest 3 is CNET’s favorite VR headset right now, and Supernatural, a subscription-based fitness program, has been Meta’s best killer app for the headset beyond games. A new mixed reality workout update for the Quest 3 brings training into your own home, a sign of where fitness and headsets are bound to head next.
The mixed reality mode uses passthrough cameras and overlays trainers and workout targets onto the video feed of your real world. It’s a feature I expected to be on the Quest 3 at its launch last fall, when Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth admitted that it was of interest.
Why is it a big deal? For me, it’s spatial awareness during complex workouts. Even with room boundary setups in VR, I sometimes find myself accidentally hitting furniture or walls. The passthrough mixed reality should make workout moves fit available spaces better or at least help me know how cluttered the space around me might be getting.
There are already other fitness apps on the Quest 3 that use mixed reality, including FitXR and Alo Moves. Supernatural, a service owned by Meta, was overdue to get mixed reality added in.
Apple’s Vision Pro barely explores fitness in-headset at all, and Meta’s VR headsets are affordable and widespread and pair with heart rate monitors. As Meta opens up to exploring mixed reality in more fitness apps, it’s the sort of work that will pave the way for other glasses and headsets to come.
It’s already a bit of a challenge to workout in a big VR headset, and not being able to see everything around you can be a challenge too. The more that headsets blend the real world and workouts together, the more smaller headsets will start feeling like just a pair of workout goggles. Supernatural will still have 3D environments in VR mode as well, but the mixed reality modes will offer another way to play.