Meta has finally released its long-awaited pass-through camera API. This allows developers to access the headset’s pass-through RGB camera directly to gain a better understanding of the scene.
Previously, Quest’s pass-through cameras have been mostly locked down, limiting what developers can do beyond the built-in features of the meta. The company returned to Connect in September and ultimately released the Quest pass-through camera API, but not sure when.
Currently, Meta XR Core SDK V74 releases Meta’s pass-through camera API as a public experimental API, providing access to Quest 3 and Quest 3’s forward-looking RGB cameras.
Pass-through camera access essentially helps developers to improve lighting and effectiveness of mixed reality apps, but applies machine learning and computer vision to the camera feed for detailed object recognition and more, reducing the number of speculation games of the content of the user’s environment.
When it was announced last year, former VR/AR Merclubkin meta VP said that the release of Quest’s pass-through API will allow for “all kinds of cutting-edge MR experiences” including tracked objects, AI applications, “fancy” overlays, and understanding scenes.
This is the first time the API has been published, but Meta has previously released early builds with some partners, including Niantic Labs, Creature, and Resolution Games. This was announced today at GDC 2025 in a meta talk entitled “Merge Realities.”
As an experimental feature, developers are not yet able to publish apps built using the pass-through camera API, but it is possible that Meta is taking a repetitive approach to full releases of features again.
The V74 release includes microguests for intuitive thumb-based gestures (such as thumb taps, swipes), immersive debuggers, allowing developers to view and inspect scene hierarchies directly within the headset, as well as new building blocks such as matchmaking and local matchmaking for friends.
