V85 Update on the Meta Quest 3 offers a brand new virtual keyboard that turns any surface into keyboard. I was a little skeptical at first so I was excited to try it out. In this article, I’ll go through how to activate it, talk about how it works, and share my experience. In the video, you can see these steps as well as a typing speed test that I do to see how it performs versus a regular keyboard.

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How to Enable The New Virtual Keyboard

Here are the steps to enable the New Virtual Keyboard. As of February 4, 2026, you do need to be part of the Public Test Channel to have access. Everyone will gain access once the full V85 is rolled out.

1. Go to Settings
2. On the left, Scroll down and click on “Experimental”
3. Scroll down and enable “Surface Keyboard:

It’s as simple as that. Once you enable it for the first time, it will take you through a tutorial on how to use it. You can find this tutorial again in the Keyboard settings. To find the Surface Keyboard Settings, do the following

1. Go to Settings
2. On the left, click on “Devices”
3. Click on “Keyboard”
4. Scroll down and you’ll see all of the surface keyboard settings

Here you will find various settings as well as the tutorial. There are also settings here for the virtual trackpad that can be changed like tracking speed, cursor size, invert scrolling, left or right click, etc.

Tips for Using the Virtual Keyboard

I wanted to share a few tips with you to help improve your experience with the virtual keyboard.

First, when the Quest is scanning your surface to make the keyboard, make sure that you are in the position you want to be while typing. If you end up needing it moved, you’ll need to re-calibrate it as you can’t just click and grab it to move it.

Another tip is to keep good posture and stay above the keyboard. I noticed that if I leaned back or slouched that the responsiveness and the alignment of where I thought my fingers were on the “keyboard” changed. By staying above it and in the same position, the tracking works better.

If you’re making lot of mistakes while typing, look down and double check where your hands are. With the lack of physical bumps on the “F” and “J” keys, it is easier for your hands to get lost on the surface.

My Experience / Speed Test

I used the keyboard quite extensively to give it a proper test. Honestly, I was very surprised at how it performed (in a good way). When set up properly, the responsiveness and accuracy was much better than I expected it to be.

On a regular keyboard, I usually type between 90-100 words per minute. With the virtual keyboard, I was consistently typing around 70-75 words per minute. Though this is about 20 words per minute slower, for a virtual keyboard, I thought that result was great. As I mentioned in the tip portion, lacking the physical bumps on the “F” and “J” keys slowed me down a bit as I did need to look down and reset my fingers at times if they drifted off a little. If you had your own little sticker bumps, you could just put them on your desk or surface while using the keyboard to solve that. I tried with little pieces of tape and it helped a little but it needed to be something a little bigger to really feel in real speed.

I was impressed with this update on the Quest and that’s the first time I’ve said that in a while. The keyboard is working great and should only get better over time.

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Check out all of my Meta Quest Tips here!