VR kiosk mode locks a headset to the content you choose, so users can’t reach the home environment, app stores, browsers or system settings. With ArborXR, Kiosk Mode locks a VR headset to a single app or video, and ArborXR Home is the multi-app option. Both are configured remotely for a whole group of devices.

When users strap on a virtual reality headset, they step into a world of possibilities. ArborXR Home and VR Kiosk Mode keep it from becoming a world of distractions.

Companies are investing in extended reality because of the tremendous benefits it offers. It improves workforce training, product design, virtual collaboration and more – as long as users can focus on the task at hand.

The native home environment in your user’s VR headset has an array of avenues to explore. Besides the extended reality experience your company designed, there are app stores, web browsers, and social features.

Default menus can confuse users with irrelevant options. And access to system settings – including factory reset – can have disastrous results.

VR Kiosk Mode Shuts Out Distractions

ArborXR offers two ways to shut out distractions and immerse users in the VR experience you designed.

Both ArborXR Kiosk Mode (single-app) and ArborXR Home (multi-app launcher) limit access to browsers, app stores, pre-installed apps, and social features and allow you to customize users' virtual environment and boundaries.

By showing users only the apps and options relevant to your goal, you set them on a natural, self-guided path. Then, monitor their progress with remote view. This allows you to see exactly what the user is seeing, so you can help them navigate VR, guide them past obstacles and troubleshoot technical difficulties.

What Can VR Kiosk Mode Do?

VR Kiosk Mode allows a business to regulate the user experience in its VR devices. You can moderate apps, restrict access to apps or suites of apps, and customize the home environment.

Permit Access to a Single App or a Suite of Content

Single-App Kiosk Mode

ArborXR’s Single-App Kiosk Mode locks each device to a single VR application.

Users won’t be confused, distracted, or tempted by menu options, browsers, or app stores. Each headset can only run a single app, which launches automatically on startup.

Kiosk mode works with proprietary apps and with apps from the app store.

If you like, you can allow users to adjust preferential settings like Wi-Fi and volume. Or, you can restrict their ability to make any adjustments at all.

Multi-App Kiosk Mode

ArborXR Home is a customizable environment that allows users to access a curated suite of apps.

Give users the freedom to move between the apps and XR media content you’ve selected for them. Broader device functionalities, like app stores and system settings, are hidden safely away where the user can’t reach them.

Similar to single-app kiosk mode, you can allow users to adjust preferential settings like Wi-Fi and volume. Or, you can restrict their ability to make any adjustments at all. 

Both ArborXR’s Single-App VR Kiosk and Multi-App VR Kiosk can be configured for groups of devices or for single, ungrouped headsets.

Moderate What VR Users See and Do

In ArborXR Kiosk Mode and ArborXR Home, hidden content remains installed on the device. Administrators can access it and activate it at any time. But unless they explicitly designate it as the kiosk app, or add it to visible content, it remains out of reach to users.

By hiding the app store’s web browsers, administrators remove the temptation of the open web. When users click on a WebXR link, it automatically launches in a window with no URL bar. The user can’t navigate away to another site.

Videos also launch with a single click, eliminating the need to give users access to a media player.

Since unpermitted content is hidden from view, users don’t feel restricted when using ArborXR Home. They are free to move about their visible environment, safely shut away from distractions.

Customize the Home Environment

Make users feel at home in your VR kiosk.

• Localize the user interface to the local language and culture
  
• Customize logos, color schemes and menu titles to match your organization’s branding
  
• Engage users with familiar or fantastic surroundings with custom environments & backgrounds

Customized VR Kiosk Environments & Backgrounds

The default background setting is the ArborXR Lounge, a warm and welcoming virtual room.

Custom backgrounds let you import your own designed environment. Whether it’s a 360-degree image or an immersive 3D environment, you can create immersive experiences tailored to your organization’s identity.

You can add a custom 3D environment (.gltf or .glb) and personalize your user experience from the very beginning. Creating a grounded 3D environment for your organization can help affirm your unique visual style and potentially lessen the risk of nausea.

You can also add a 360-degree photo and transform the home environment into your company’s lobby, worksite, or any place you want users to see.

How to enable kiosk mode by headset

• Meta Quest: Meta Quest kiosk mode: how to set it up
• PICO and HTC VIVE Focus: how to enable kiosk mode on PICO, HTC and other VR headsets
• AR headsets, Android tablets and phones: kiosk mode for AR headsets, tablets and phones

See all supported devices and everything ArborXR’s kiosk mode and custom launcher can do.

Kiosk mode FAQ

How do I exit kiosk mode?

Two ways, depending on whether you want a temporary exit on the headset or a permanent change from the portal.

On the device (temporary):

1. Press the home button on the right controller or on the headset to open ArborXR’s quick access menu.
2. Select Advanced Settings (cog icon, top left).
3. If no admin PIN is enforced, select View Advanced Settings. If a PIN is enforced, select Unlock Advanced Settings, enter the admin PIN, then Unlock Settings.
4. Select Exit ArborXR Home, then Continue.

• On PICO devices running PUI 5 or higher, the device restarts and boots into the PICO Home environment.
• On Meta Horizon managed services devices, you cannot reach the native home environment from kiosk mode (shared mode). Exiting instead unlocks additional system settings.
• Because Advanced Settings contains the option to exit kiosk mode, we recommend locking it behind a 4–10 digit admin PIN. Admin Mode ends when you click the red lock icon or reboot the device (admin PIN behavior).

Step-by-step: temporarily exit kiosk mode.

From the portal (permanent): go to the group or ungrouped device → Kiosk Experience tab → under Headset Experience, switch from ArborXR Kiosk Mode to ArborXR Home or Device Home Environment, then click Apply Changes. The new configuration applies the next time the device comes online (configure ArborXR Home or kiosk mode).

Single-app vs multi-app?

It depends on the device type.

VR headsets (Quest, PICO, HTC VIVE, Lenovo VRX, DPVR):

• ArborXR Kiosk Mode is single-app only. It locks the device to one application — or one video, which plays on a continuous loop — and prevents users from exiting it or reaching other apps (what is kiosk mode).
• If you need users to access more than one app, use ArborXR Home instead. It’s our VR launcher: it blocks the device’s native home environment and stock settings, and you choose which apps and settings end users can see.

AR headsets, Android tablets and phones (Magic Leap 2, Vuzix, RealWear, Samsung and Lenovo tablets):

Both modes are available through Lock Task Mode, powered by Android’s lock task API. Go to the group or device → Kiosk Experience tab → Lock Task Mode → Kiosk Mode, then select apps:

• Single app selected → single-app kiosk mode. The kiosk app launches automatically on power-on and users cannot escape it.
• Multiple apps selected → multi-app kiosk mode. Users only see the selected apps and launch them from the device’s native launcher.

Lock Task Mode is available on all plans (configure kiosk mode on AR headsets and Android tablets).

Can I set kiosk mode on several headsets at once?

Yes. Kiosk mode is configured at the configuration group level, so the setting applies to every device in the group.

• A configuration group holds devices of the same model with shared content and settings. Change the launch method on the group and it applies to all devices in it (groups overview).
• Groups support one device model each — you can’t mix Quest 3 and PICO Neo 3 in the same configuration group, so you’ll need one group per model.
• Rolling out the same setup repeatedly? Duplicate a configuration group to create new ones with content and settings pre-configured (nested groups).
• To push one kiosk configuration across multiple groups, use Configuration Presets. Headset Experience (ArborXR Home, ArborXR Kiosk Mode, In-House Launcher) and Device Experience (Lock Task Mode) are both available as presets. Build the configuration once, apply it to one or more groups, and changes propagate automatically to every device where it’s applied (configuration presets).
• You can also configure kiosk mode on an individual ungrouped device if you only need to change one headset.

Get Started with VR

Virtual reality is rapidly changing the way companies do business. VR helps make employee training more effective, whether that is developing hard skills or soft skills. In some use cases, team collaboration is more engaging, and product design is more efficient.

VR adoption in business is rising as advancing technology brings down costs. At the same time, ArborXR is solving the challenges of deploying XR at scale.

Modern XR device management allows you to effortlessly manage your entire fleet of devices. Kiosk mode allows you to monitor and control the user experience. And enterprise-level security ensures your data is always secure.

Don’t be left behind. Get started today.