Theater Elsewhere

Theater Elsewhere is a media app from Meta Platforms, Inc for watching hand-painted, animated VR art made by creators around the world. The pieces range from brief character moments to longer stories, and you watch them from inside the scene rather than on a flat screen. It has been on the Meta Horizon Store since December 10, 2019.

What you can do

• Browse a library that the developer puts at more than 2,400 immersive animated pieces.
• Pick one of six backgrounds and make it your default space for browsing.
• Find and play content through a quick, simple interface.
• Turn on Freefly Mode to move around freely inside each piece.

The app doubles as a showcase for artists. Creators can paint and animate in Quill by Smoothstep, a VR painting and animation tool on the Meta Quest PC VR platform, and then upload their work through Meta Quest Media Studio. New uploads appear in the app's Newest section, so the catalog keeps growing with community work.

Theater Elsewhere is a viewer, not a creation tool: you cannot paint or animate inside it, and making your own pieces requires a PC VR setup for Quill.

Comfort

Meta gives it a moderate comfort rating, so it may not suit everyone. It supports sitting, standing and room-scale play and uses controllers, with no hand tracking listed. Freefly Mode is optional, so if you are prone to motion sickness in VR you can watch from a fixed spot instead.

Platforms and what to know before buying

• Price: free on the Meta Horizon Store.
• Headsets: Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2, plus the original Meta Quest.
• Internet: not required.
• Ads: no in-app ads.
• Early access: no, it is a full release.
• Language: English.
• Age rating: 3+.