Quest has been an increasingly popular choice for Steam users since the release of the original in 2019, now accounting for over half of all connected VR headsets. Now Valveā€™s latest 2.8.3 SteamVR update includes a few new features thatā€™s making Quest a better PC VR headset than ever.

Released in late 2023, Steam Link allows users to easily connect their Quest wirelessly to SteamVR to play PC VR or flatscreen PC games, essentially letting you bypass Metaā€™s own Air Link.

Now, the Steam Link for Meta Quest Beta update (2.0.11.1197) introduces a few new features for the Steam Link for Quest, allowing hand-tracking passthrough and some limited hand-tracking functionality too.

Granted, Valve says itā€™s not the ā€œfull hand-trackingā€ support youā€™d expect on native Quest applications, but itā€™s at least letting users experiment. The update allows users to create custom input bindings via its Binding UI in Controller Settings, so you can tool around making your own control scheme based on hand gestures.

Additionally, Steam Link 2D streaming has been re-enabled in the Steam Link app for Quest, which you can nab for free over on the Horizon Store. Youā€™ll need to opt-in to the SteamVR Beta first to play PC VR games via Steam Link, but itā€™s a super simple process.

This follows the release of one of the most major Steam Link updates late last year that included ā€˜Advanced Supersample Filteringā€™, which majorly improved wirelessly streaming video quality when using high supersampling rates. An update in March also brought a significant improvement to overall stability.

Donā€™t confuse the constant stream of useful updates to Steam Link as a favor to Meta though. While the cheap and plentiful Quest 2 now accounts for nearly 40% of VR headsets connected to Steam alone, no doubt keeping Quest users happy, Valve is rumored to be full steam ahead on releasing its own standalone headset, codenamed ā€˜Deckardā€™, which ought to benefit from all of the quality of life stuff weā€™re seeing come to Quest via Steam Link today.