Building for Meta Quest in Unity uses Meta’s own XR SDK (the “Meta XR All-in-One SDK”) to handle headset-specific concerns — tracking, input, passthrough, spatial anchors — while the rest of the development workflow stays close to standard Unity practice. The part that trips up most newcomers isn’t Quest-specific scripting; it’s getting the initial project configuration right.
Watch: Get Started with Meta Quest Development in Unity | Meta’s new XR SDK release! (XR Dev Rob, YouTube)
Step 1: Switch the build platform to Android before installing anything else
Quest runs on Android, so the very first step — before importing any XR packages — is switching Unity’s Build Settings platform to Android. Installing the Meta XR SDK against the wrong platform target is a common early mistake that causes confusing errors later; get the platform switch done first, confirm it took effect, and only then move on to package installation.
Step 2: Install the Meta XR All-in-One SDK from the Package Manager
Meta distributes its SDK through the Unity Package Manager (via a custom registry or direct .unitypackage import, depending on the current distribution method) rather than requiring manual file placement. The All-in-One SDK bundles the core VR framework, interaction toolkit, and platform features together — installing that single package, rather than hunting for individual older-generation Oculus Integration components, is the current recommended path for a new project.
Step 3: Use the SDK’s sample scenes to confirm the setup works
Before building any custom scene, open one of the SDK’s included sample scenes and get it running in Play Mode (with a connected headset or Meta’s Link/Air Link tools for PC-tethered testing) or deployed as a build to the device. This confirms the entire pipeline — platform target, SDK installation, headset connection or build deployment — works end to end before any custom code enters the picture, isolating setup problems from actual development problems.
Step 4: Enable developer mode on the headset early
Physical Quest hardware needs Developer Mode enabled (through the Meta Horizon mobile app, tied to a registered developer account) before it will accept builds pushed from Unity or run apps outside the official store. This is an account-and-device-setup step independent of anything in the Unity project itself — worth doing at the very start of a first project, rather than discovering it’s needed only once a first build is ready to test on real hardware.