Key Takeaways
- Quest apps make measuring fun and easy with spatial awareness features and sound effects.
- The Tape Measure app has a wingspan limit, while MultiMeasure highlights objects in the room.
- MultiMeasure allows for more detailed measurements but is limited to a small play area.
Have you ever tried to use a tape measure to find the length of a sofa by yourself? Have you ever needed to measure something and can’t find a tape measure? If you have a Quest, those days are behind you. If you do own a tape measure, you may still want to measure things with the Quest because it’s fun!
But, Why?
Personally, I measured everything in my house because once I got going it was hard to stop! It’s worth getting these apps if you have an excuse to measure or even if you don’t. Other reasons to measure with the Quest would include all the reasons you’d use a regular tape measure.
From experience, I’d not recommend measuring this way when accuracy down to the millimeter is crucial to success. It probably won’t work for carpenters, but it’s perfect for measuring furniture or prepping for a move.
The free app Tape Measure is a no-frills VR tape measure. Stretch out your controllers and, behold: a tape measure! The downside to this app is the limit of the tape measure is equal to the limit of the your wingspan. However, that still covers a lot of things that need to be measured, and it makes a satisfying clicking noise as you stretch out the tape. All measurements taken in a session stay in mixed reality until you clear the field.
I measured my little Chromebook screen as 11.5 inches, which is accurate. You can see some distortion in the upper left of the screenshot. Unfortunately, that’s typical of the Quest in passthrough mode (mixed reality), but it didn’t seem to affect the measurements.
MultiMeasure is the premium measuring app on the Quest, and this is where I had the most fun! In fact, once I started measuring, I couldn’t stop. I went to every room in my house on a measuring spree.
As soon as the app is activated in passthrough mode, the room turns an electric purple and the edges of every object in the room are highlighted. I’m still geeking out over this app. How does it know? It outlined the edges of my fish tank, the cords and lights, and the decorations inside the tank!
Unlike the tape measure app, you aren’t limited by wingspan. Measurements are made by creating dots or marks with the controllers. It takes two dots to measure length, three for angles, and four to measure square footage.
Meta Quest 3
The Meta Quest 3 improves on the Meta Quest 2 in every way, while adding brand-new mixed reality capabilities thanks to advanced full color external cameras.
The major drawback to this app is that all measurements have to be taken inside the typical 6.5ft x 6.5ft (2m) play area. Realistically, it would be difficult (but not impossible!) to measure furniture, which is one of the only practical applications of this app.
As is common with VR, it’s probably cheaper, easier, and more efficient to do things the old way. However, I’ll probably reach for the headset again to measure things if the need arises, and I have the time. Why not?
