What to Build

An immersive experience (or “Project”) built for Meta Horizon OS, targeting Meta Quest devices and aligned with at least one of the following tracks:

1. Entertainment: Reimagine how users consume or watch content, making it more immersive and interactive.
2. Lifestyle: Enhance peoples’ daily lives, how they get things done, learn new skills, and connect with others around shared interests.
3. Gaming
   • Casual Games: Accessible, single-player games designed for quick, engaging fun.
   • Social Games: Multiplayer experiences that connect people in real time to play a game together.

Experiment with the latest Horizon OS features and toolkits or explore various build paths to get rewarded for your innovation, design, and technical excellence in special categories, including:

• Hands: Design intuitive, controller-free interactions that make VR feel natural. Projects showcasing advanced hand interactions are eligible for the Best Implementation of Hand Interactions award. Get started: Unity | Unreal | Spatial SDK | WebXR.
• Passthrough Camera Access with AI: Merge physical and virtual spaces by incorporating real-world visuals and context-aware overlays. Experiences using passthrough creatively may earn the Best Use of Camera Passthrough Access with AI award. Get started: Unity | Unreal | Spatial SDK.
• Meta Spatial SDK: Develop immersive spatial experiences built on a native Android framework that seamlessly connects virtual and real-world elements. Exceptional Spatial SDK builds may receive the Best Immersive Experience Built with Spatial SDK award. Get started by visiting the documentation.
• Immersive Web SDK: Build immersive web experiences using our new Immersive Web SDK and leverage modern architecture, familiar workflows, and production-ready systems to streamline your workflow. Projects built for the web will be eligible for the Best Immersive Experience Built with Immersive Web SDK award. 
• Android Development: Android apps that leverage features unique to Meta Quest, solve a user problem arising from using a Meta Quest, or are uniquely useful when Meta Quest is in Travel Mode are eligible for Best Android App awards. Get started by exploring our Android app documentation. 
• React Native: Projects that creatively reimagine existing mobile or web apps, or are entirely new immersive experiences using React Native are eligible for the Best Experience Built with React Native award.

Projects may be NEW (projects developed specifically for this competition) or UPDATED (existing projects or applications created or published prior to this competition). Existing projects or published apps must include significant updates introduced specifically for this competition to be eligible to win.

• Examples of Significant Updates:
  • Implementing Hand Interactions
  • Adding multiplayer support
  • Introducing a mixed reality (MR) interaction mode
  • Releasing a user generated content creation tool
• Non-Examples: 
  • Bug fixes or minor User Interface (UI) tweaks
  • Cosmetic changes (e.g., new color scheme)
  • Performance optimization without new user-facing features
    
    

Suggested SDKs:

• Unity
  • Meta XR SDKs v81+
• Unreal
  • Oculus Integration SDK v81+
• Android apps
  • React Native v0.82
  • Jetpack Compose 1.9.4
  • Meta Spatial SDK v0.8.0+
• Immersive Web SDK
  • Node.js (version 20.19.0 or higher)
  • IWSDK (use the command npm create @iwsdk@latest to get the latest version)
    

What to Submit

• Project as defined in What to Build. 
  • For apps built with Unity, Unreal, Spatial SDK or Android/Native:
    • Upload an APK to a new release channel named “Competition” in the Meta Horizon Developer Dashboard. Create and submit an Invite URL. for judges to access and test your Project.
  • For apps built with IWSDK (WebXR):
    • See "Deploying to GitHub Pages" for details on how to share a link. You may also use your preferred hosting solution (e.g., Digital Ocean, AWS, Azure, etc.)
  • Once the Entry Period has ended, you may not make changes or alterations to your submission. The judging process will be based on the state of the Entry at the time of submission deadline. Ensure your entry Project remains available.
• Demonstration video of your Project that should be less than three (3) minutes and showcase footage of your Project as viewed on a Meta Quest device or via XR Simulator or another equivalent emulator. The video must be uploaded to and made publicly visible on YouTube and a link to the video must be provided on the submission form on the Competition website. Judges are not required to watch beyond three minutes.
• Complete Submission Form, which includes but is not limited to: 
  • Submission name
  • Submission tagline (140 characters)
  • Track: Entertainment, Lifestyle, or Gaming
  • Text description that explains your inspiration, how you built it, future plans for improvement (suggested length: 500 words or less).
  • If your Project is an UPDATED build (as described above), include a summary description of the new features/capabilities added to the application. Screenshots, changelogs and/or demo videos are highly recommended.
  • Target launch date, if not already published.
  • Name(s), email(s), and role(s) for each team member (if applicable).

View full competition rules.

Judging Criteria and Process

Please see the full details on the Judging Criteria and process here.