Traveling back in time with Meta Quest is as fascinating as ever

Jun 17 2024
Tomislav Bezmalinovic

Parkline Interactive / Google

Wander is a VR app that lets you travel almost anywhere in the world and turn back time. Even after many years, it’s still a magical experience.

I had time to check out some new and old VR apps this weekend, and Wander was the one that made the biggest impression on me.

The last time I tried and wrote about Wander was almost six years ago, when I reviewed the app with Oculus Go. Meta Quest didn’t even exist then.

Wander brings Google Street View to virtual reality, putting nearly the entire world at your fingertips. The app lets you immerse yourself in 360-degree views, follow a street at the touch of a button, and teleport from one part of the world to another in seconds. The interface is intuitive, and speech recognition lets you find places without the hassle of typing.

Time travel with Wander

The most striking feature of the VR app is the time travel function. If multiple Street View views of a geographic location have been created over the years, you can switch between them and see the street you are on as it looked one, three, ten, or even more years ago.

I emigrated eight years ago and visited the street where I have lived ever since and where a lot has changed since 2016. Seeing the old street triggered strong feelings in me. Curious, I traveled back even further, to 2011. When you know a place so well, you can’t even imagine that it existed before you went there and made it your own. I also visited my parents’ house and saw a piece of forest from my childhood that years ago had to make way for two supermarkets and a gas station. The driveway had changed, too, and other houses had been built.

With Wander, I let 15 years pass in a second. But when you look back, doesn’t the past always seem to pass in the blink of an eye?

Exploring places and times together

To toggle between different times, point the right controller at the left controller. This should open a context menu with a calendar icon that lets you jump to different times.

Wander also features social discovery so you can explore different places and times together, as long as your friends and family have a Quest headset. Favorite locations can be saved as favorites so you can return to them at any time.

Wander is available on the Quest Store for $10.