Expanded Quick Actions will provide you with useful tools right at your fingertips. Meta Quest games that mostly use hand tracking are undeniably amazing. Interacting with a virtual environment using your real hands feels like a scene from a sci-fi film, yet this realism and engagement also makes inputs slightly more limited compared to using controllers equipped with joysticks and buttons.
This means that when playing a game such as Dimensional Double Shift, you can engage with the environment and other players in unprecedented ways. However, executing system tasks like capturing a screenshot, recording a video, or muting your microphone is not as straightforward. Fortunately, there’s a solution, though it’s somewhat tucked away in the system menu.
It’s referred to as Expanded Quick Actions, and it introduces five buttons to the menu on your palm, enabling you to swiftly mute your microphone (yay!), recenter your view, record a video, access the menu, and observe your surroundings without needing to take off your headset. The microphone mute feature is particularly beneficial for me, as I have a lively family and occasionally need to have conversations while gaming, something I don’t always want broadcast to the entire internet.
How to activate Expanded Quick Actions:
On your Meta Quest headset, press the home button on the right controller or perform the home gesture with your hands by pinching your index finger and thumb together while your palm is facing you. This will display the Universal Menu Bar, which features shortcuts to the app drawer, recent and pinned applications, and settings. Next, click on the Quick Settings panel, which is a button on the left side of the menu bar that indicates the time, Wi-Fi status, and battery.
Following that, you will want to click on Settings in the upper right corner, then choose Movement Tracking from the left-side menu. In this part, you will discover the option to enable hand tracking and Expanded Quick Actions. Make sure hand tracking is turned on, then tap the Expanded Quick Actions toggle to activate it.
Now, when you face your palm toward you, pinch your index finger and thumb together and hold them for a moment, and a more detailed action menu will show up. This reveals the previously mentioned menu that includes mute, screen record, recenter, mixed reality, and home buttons. Expanded Quick Actions is operational on any Meta Quest headset, but it performs best on a Quest 3 or Quest 3S since those headsets feature full-color mixed reality capabilities.
If you merely want to return home, you can still quickly tap your index finger and thumb together to initiate the home gesture. While in this menu, feel free to adjust a few settings as you wish. One particularly handy option is “double tap controllers for hand tracking,” which allows you to seamlessly switch between controller-based and hand tracking methods without having to set the controllers down and waiting for them to go inactive.
Hand tracking may not be applicable everywhere, yet I’ve noticed that I often default to it when I put on my Quest prior to launching anything, and I frequently find myself working directly from my headset without utilizing controllers at all. It’s truly remarkable how far hand tracking has advanced and how it serves as a legitimate alternative to controllers in various situations, especially now that you can access quick menus with useful actions with just a pinch.
The Meta Quest 3 is equipped with outstanding motion-tracked controllers and thousands of games designed for the platform, but you can also set the controllers aside and use your own hands to navigate numerous games and experiences. What are you waiting for? VR is calling. It’s time to respond!