Meta Brings 4 Display Modes and Input Forwarding to Quest Mac Virtual Display

Q: Meta just gave Quest headsets a massive Mac upgrade, but what missing feature keeps it from matching Apple's spatial computing ecosystem?

The key missing feature is seamless system-wide pointer sharing between the Mac and the headset. Meta’s Quest update brings Mac support much closer to Apple’s Vision Pro-style workflow. Quest now offers quicker Mac connection, multiple virtual screen layouts including ultrawide, text scaling options, and controller input forwarding. On Mac, the keyboard and trackpad can interact with the desktop inside Virtual Display, which is a major usability improvement. But it still falls short of Apple’s spatial computing ecosystem because the Mac’s own mouse or trackpad cannot act as a universal Quest pointer outside the virtual desktop. In other words, you can control the Mac screen, but you cannot fluidly move that same pointer into Horizon OS menus and other headset interfaces. Apple explicitly supports that kind of crossover in Mac Virtual Display on Vision Pro. Apple says a Mac trackpad or mouse can share the pointer between the Mac and visionOS apps, so users can look at a window and use the same input device across both the desktop and the headset environment. That is a more integrated spatial-computing model than Meta currently offers. So while Meta has narrowed the gap on display options and connection flow, the absence of full cross-environment pointer continuity remains the biggest limitation keeping Quest from matching Apple’s ecosystem.

3 articles · Updated · UploadVR · Sep 8

Meta’s Quest Virtual Display on macOS now matches Windows on core features, adding the over-device quick-connect prompt and the same Portrait, Compact, Wide and Ultrawide layouts.
Version 104.0.0.1.109 also adds input forwarding on both Mac and Windows, letting Quest Touch controllers move the cursor and click inside the connected computer instead of acting as view-only remote display.
Testing showed broader Mac support than Meta’s older Remote Desktop app, with a 2017 27-inch Intel iMac connecting successfully, though a 2017 MacBook Pro lacked the quick-connect prompt.
The remaining limitation is input separation: a Mac’s own mouse or trackpad can control the virtual Mac desktop but cannot cross over to Quest menus or Horizon OS panels.
The update extends Meta’s push to fold Remote Desktop and HDMI Link into one Quest app, with Virtual Display now handling PCs, Macs and external HDMI devices.