It is huge potential in the world of extended reality. With fully immersed qualities that Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro might take, that might be an excellent launch point for these notoriously hard-to-initiate and even harder to maintain practices: mindfulness and meditation.

As such, partnership with leading meditation app Headspace and Quest-maker Meta is a no-brainer. This morning, the companies announced a collaboration with multimedia design firm Nexus Studios that customizes the experience for extended reality headsets.

Appropriately named, Headspace XR includes guided practices from the application's mindfulness/meditation instructors, Dora Kamau and Kessonga Giscombe. If you've ever used Headspace, Calm or the like (or just experienced guided meditation of any sort), you're probably familiar with approaches, including breathing exercises, body scans, mood tracking, and the like. They're all meant to help in re-centering the user's focus.

Community-wise, there is that for some people who need just a little motivation from the other end so they can keep at a consistent practice. These are presented against colorful metaverse-style environments where users can interact and have a go at games. At the very least, the experience seems engaging in a way that would not otherwise usually be associated with meditation apps. This could, perhaps, go a ways toward bringing users back-how it will translate to an effective, regular practice is another question. Clearly the firms wanted to offer something beyond just meditation.

Research shows that when humans play, our brains are activated in a way that can impact overall life satisfaction and emotional well-being. Unfortunately, our day-to-day lives are often stripped of this opportunity," Headspace VP Sara Cohen says in a release.

So, gaming as a gateway to mindfulness is the apparent hook here. At the very least, improving moods through social activities seems like an achievable short-term goal.

While placing a subscription fee next to a free app is fairly standard in the industry, Headspace is instead opting for an upfront fee of $30. The app is now available for Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro.