Meta Quest store submission guide: requirements, review and rejections

The short answer

To publish on the Meta Horizon Store, your app must pass Meta's Virtual Reality Checks, which cover performance, input, functionality, security, privacy, content and store assets. In practice that means holding the headset's refresh rate, behaving correctly when paused or interrupted, declaring your data use honestly and supplying accurate store art and ratings. Most rejections come from frame drops, crashes, broken pause behaviour and data declarations that do not match what the app does. Requirements are updated regularly, so read Meta's current documentation before every submission.

How publishing is organised

• Developer account and organisation. Create an organisation in the developer dashboard and verify it.
• App record. Create the app, choose the platform and fill in metadata.
• Release channels. Upload builds to channels such as alpha, beta and release candidate, and invite testers by email before going public.
• Submission. Send a build and store listing for review.
• Review. Meta tests technical compliance and content, then approves or returns notes.

The former App Lab route was merged into the main store in 2024, so there is now one store with one set of requirements, and listings can be made more or less discoverable.

The technical checks

Meta groups its requirements into categories. The exact wording changes, but the areas are stable.

Performance comes first

Performance is the most common failure. Meta's performance check requires the app to run at the specified refresh rates, and 72 Hz is the lowest display rate on Quest headsets. In practice the app must hold that rate in every scene, including the heaviest moment and during loading transitions. Practical steps:

• Profile on the lowest device you list as supported. See Quest 3 as the build target.
• Keep draw calls, polygon counts and texture memory within platform guidance.
• Use baked lighting and simple shaders.
• Use fixed foveated rendering and dynamic resolution where appropriate.
• Show a responsive loading scene so the view never freezes while tracking continues.

A frozen image that stays fixed to the user's head while they move is one of the most uncomfortable things in VR, and reviewers check for it. Background on comfort is in VR comfort and motion sickness.

System behaviour

Your app shares the headset with the operating system.

• Pause and resume. When the user opens the system menu or removes the headset, the app must pause gameplay and audio, and resume cleanly.
• Boundary. The app must respect the boundary system and not hide it.
• System buttons. Reserved buttons and gestures must not be overridden.
• Recentering. The view must respond correctly to recentring.
• Network loss. Online apps must fail gracefully with a clear message.
• Multiple users. The app should handle account switching and entitlement properly.

Entitlement check

Meta's guidelines say an app should perform a platform entitlement check within 10 seconds of launch, which confirms that the current user owns the app. For the Horizon Store it is listed as a recommended check. Add it anyway: it is the standard protection against unauthorised copies, and it takes very little time to implement.

Data and privacy

• Provide a privacy policy link.
• Complete the data use declaration for every platform feature that touches user data, and request only what you use.
• Declare any third-party kits that collect data.
• Apply stricter rules if younger users may use the app. See app store age verification laws.
• If your app has user interaction, include reporting and blocking tools. See social VR and multiplayer development.

Ratings and comfort labels

You will complete an age rating questionnaire, which issues ratings for multiple regions through the IARC system, as explained in game age ratings. You also choose a comfort rating that tells buyers how intense the experience is. Be accurate. An app with smooth locomotion and fast turning labelled as comfortable will attract refunds and poor reviews.

Store assets

Capturing good VR footage takes planning: smooth the camera, use a spectator view where possible and consider mixed reality capture.

Pricing and business model

The store supports paid apps, free apps, add-on content and subscriptions, with the platform taking a share of revenue. Check Meta's current terms for the rate and for any programmes that change it. Decide early whether you sell the app or content inside it, because in-app purchases need store integration and testing with test users. See how to earn from games.

A submission timeline

1. Four weeks before: feature complete, performance pass on the lowest supported device.
2. Three weeks before: closed testing through a release channel with outside testers.
3. Two weeks before: store art, trailer, descriptions, ratings, privacy policy, data declaration.
4. Submission: allow time for at least one round of review notes.
5. After approval: set the release date, prepare launch communications and monitor crash reports.

Review times vary, so do not promise a public date until you have approval.

Common reasons for rejection

• Frame rate drops in specific scenes.
• Crashes or hangs on a supported device.
• App continues running or playing audio when paused.
• Head-locked freeze during loading.
• A build that targets the wrong API level or is signed incorrectly.
• Data collected without declaration, or permissions requested without use.
• Store assets that do not represent the app.
• Features described in the listing that do not work.
• Broken behaviour without controllers when hand tracking is listed as supported. See hand tracking vs controllers.

Other VR stores

The same build can often reach other storefronts with adjustments: Steam for PC VR, and newer platforms based on OpenXR. Each has its own checks. See OpenXR spatial containers and Steam Frame verification.

Getting help

We optimise, test against the current requirements and submit Quest apps, including ones built by other teams. Packages start at $999 on the VR offer page.

Sources: Meta: Virtual Reality Check guidelines · Meta Horizon developer documentation · International Age Rating Coalition. Checked November 11, 2026.

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