Motorola phones can now be used in VR on Quest 3 & 3S, and owners can even stream and control individual apps or multiple at the same time.
First announced by Mark Zuckerberg at Motorola parent company Lenovo’s yearly event in October, the Smart Connect app is now available on the Meta Horizon Store.
The app lets Motorola phone owners stream and control either individual apps, or multiple at the same time in the ‘Mobile Desktop’ mode. They can also see notifications and take calls, or opt out of that at any time through a Do Not Disturb toggle.
The setup process involves scanning a QR code displayed on your phone using the headset’s passthrough cameras, leveraging the same API used to scan Wi-Fi QR codes.
Motorola has around 5% smartphone market share globally and around 10% in the US. That means the majority of people can’t use this new capability. But those who do own a Motorola phone might find it a useful feature to stay connected in VR.
There are already a number of ways to view any Android phone in VR though, including a few that also let you control them. Meta Quest HDMI Link, for example, lets you view any device over USB-C using a capture card. You could also use the store app Spatial Phone, or sideload a general Android remote desktop app such as AnyDesk.
Since visionOS 2, iPhone owners can view their phone in Apple Vision Pro, but they can’t control it.
David Heaney
Lenovo, Motorola’s parent company, is still working on multiple Meta Horizon OS standalone headsets of its own, originally announced a year ago and reaffirmed in October.
