VRCollaborationMigration

After Workrooms: Practical Migration Paths for Teams Leaving Meta VR

UUnknown

2026-02-24

11 min read

Step-by-step migration plan for teams leaving Meta Workrooms — export assets, migrate meetings, manage Quest fleets and pick the best target platform in 2026.

Lost Workrooms? A straight-line migration plan for IT and dev teams

Hook: If your organization relied on Meta Workrooms for meetings, shared whiteboards and asset-driven collaboration, the announcement that Meta will end the standalone Workrooms app on February 16, 2026 creates an urgent operational problem: where do you move meetings, assets and device management with the least disruption?

This guide gives IT admins and dev teams a practical, prioritized migration path — from immediate triage through full cutover — for moving Workrooms users to Meta Horizon or alternative collaboration platforms. It combines device-management best practices, actionable export and hosting steps, integration patterns (SSO, calendars, files) and a reusable migration checklist tuned for 2026 realities: the discontinuation of Horizon managed services, rising demand for WebXR fallbacks, and tighter compliance scrutiny across hybrid infrastructures.

Executive summary — what you must do in the next 30–90 days

Immediate (days): Inventory users, export meeting recordings and whiteboards, capture any attachments, and notify stakeholders and calendar recipients.
Near term (2–4 weeks): Choose a target platform (Horizon, Teams/Mesh, Virbela/Glue, web-first options), set up identity and device-management strategy, and provision storage for your 3D and media assets.
Medium term (4–12 weeks): Pilot with a representative team, migrate recurring meetings and automations, and roll out training and support documentation.
Ongoing: Monitor cost/performance and enforce data retention and compliance policies across the new stack.

Why now? 2026 context you need to plan for

Meta announced the shutdown of Workrooms as a standalone app effective February 16, 2026 and has also been shifting investments away from parts of Reality Labs. That means fewer managed services from Meta going forward; notably, Horizon managed services were also slated for discontinuation in late 2025/early 2026. The practical impact for IT: you should assume less vendor-hosted lifecycle support and plan for either a Horizon self-managed approach or move to third-party platforms or web-native stacks that play well with existing identity and asset hosting systems.

Translation for IT: don’t rely on Meta to migrate your data for you. Export what you need, build repeatable tools to host assets, and lock down device management now.

Step 0 — Stopgap communication & governance

Before any technical work, tell the organization what’s happening and set expectations. The first 48 hours of communication reduce confusion.

Send an executive notification to affected teams with dates and next steps.
Publish a short FAQ with: data export timelines, who to contact for lost assets, and planned pilot dates.
Identify stakeholders: security/compliance, procurement, platform owners, and a migration lead.

Step 1 — Inventory everything (meetings, assets, workflows)

An accurate inventory is the single most predictive factor for a frictionless migration. Capture what Workrooms hosted and who used it.

Checklist for inventory

Users & roles: list active Workrooms users, device assignments (Quest headset IDs), and admins.
Recurring meetings: export calendar invites and owners for weekly/monthly rooms.
Assets: 3D models, whiteboards, PDFs, recordings, shared links, and avatars used in rooms.
Integrations: Slack/Teams hooks, Google Drive/M365 links, SSO provider, calendar sync method.
Device policies: any MDM profiles, kiosk setups, or provisioning scripts for Quest headsets.

Step 2 — Export now: assets, recordings, whiteboards, logs

Assuming you have admin access, begin exporting content immediately. Workrooms support for bulk export is limited — treat this as a manual extraction project unless Meta provides an enterprise export API.

Practical export actions

Recordings: download MP4s or request them via Meta enterprise support. Store originals in an immutable storage bucket (e.g., S3 with object lock) if needed for compliance.
Whiteboards: export as high-resolution PNG/PDF. If the UI doesn’t allow direct export, use headless screenshots at high DPI via an automated Quest session or capture via tooling while the room is live.
3D assets & models: export glTF/FBX/OBJ from your authoring tool (not Workrooms). If models were uploaded from within Workrooms with no direct export option, request the files from the uploading user or Meta support.
Chat logs & metadata: copy meeting notes and participant lists into a structured CSV for import into your new platform and compliance systems.

Step 3 — Pick a target platform (Horizon or alternatives)

Choose based on feature parity, device support, hosting model, and your ops capacity. Here’s a concise decision matrix.

Option 1: Move to Horizon

Good if you want the closest UX and you’ll continue to use Quest headsets.
Consideration: Horizon managed services are being discontinued — plan for self-managed policies and custom integrations.

Option 2: Microsoft Teams + Mesh or Teams native VR support

Pros: tight integration with M365, enterprise SSO (Azure AD), and eDiscovery.
Cons: still evolving for full immersive features compared to Workrooms.

Option 3: Third-party VR platforms (Virbela, Glue, Engage)

Pros: enterprise-ready collaboration features, training/virtual office models, vendor support.
Cons: may require additional training and integration work.

Option 4: Web-first fallback (WebXR + WebRTC)

Pros: broad device support (desktop, mobile, and lightweight XR), easier hosting and CDN strategies, cheaper to operate.
Cons: immersive fidelity can be lower; developer work needed for parity.

Step 4 — Device management & fleet migration (Quest headsets)

With Horizon managed services waning, you must take device management seriously. Modern MDM (Microsoft Intune, VMware Workspace ONE, SOTI) can handle Android-based Quest devices but may need custom policies.

Device migration actions

Export device roster: headset serials, assigned users, provisioning scripts.
Choose MDM: Intune is the pragmatic choice for Azure AD-heavy shops; otherwise use Workspace ONE or SOTI tailored to Android Enterprise.
Provisioning: create a baseline provisioning profile that enforces firmware updates, telemetry settings, and whitelisted apps.
Kiosk mode: if headsets are single-purpose, enforce kiosk with auto-launch to your new meeting app.
Security: enable remote wipe, encrypted storage, and logging to your SIEM for audits.

Step 5 — Identity, SSO and calendar migration

Meet continuity depends on calendars and access. Don’t underestimate the friction if calendar owners aren’t transferred correctly.

SSO: ensure target platform supports your SAML/OIDC provider (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace). Test token lifetimes and multi-factor flows.
Calendars: export recurring meeting invites and re-create them on the new platform. For high-volume rooms, script invites using Google Calendar / Microsoft Graph APIs.
Meet links: standardize on domain-based meeting links (meet.company.com) and use redirect rules for temporary continuity.

Step 6 — Hosting and deployment patterns for assets and apps

How you host 3D assets, whiteboards and meeting recordings determines latency, cost and compliance. Below are recommended hosting patterns for 2026.

Recommended hosting architectures

Assets (models, textures): store in object storage (AWS S3, GCP Cloud Storage, Azure Blob). Use a CDN (CloudFront, Cloudflare, Azure CDN) for global low-latency delivery of glTF / USDZ files.
Media (recordings): store in a cold-tier archive if infrequently accessed, but keep recent recordings in fast storage for retrieval. Use signed URLs for secured access.
Application backends: containerize services and run in managed Kubernetes or serverless functions; keep stateful services (presence, room metadata) in managed databases (RDS, Cosmos DB).
Web fallback (WebXR): deploy a web client behind a load balancer and use WebRTC signaling servers (TURN/STUN) colocated with users to reduce latency.

Quick S3 example to upload assets

Developer teams moving models into S3 can run:

aws s3 cp ./models/ s3://company-vr-assets/models/ --recursive --acl private --exclude "*.blend"

Step 7 — Migrate integrations and workflows

Most organizations relied on Workrooms connectors — Slack notifications, document embeds, or calendar triggers. Recreate these integrations in your target platform.

Messaging: rewire Slack or Teams webhooks to post meeting notices and summaries from your new platform.
Document sync: use cloud storage links rather than embedded objects; store canonical files in Google Drive or SharePoint and reference them from XR rooms.
Automations: re-implement Zapier/Power Automate flows that created rooms, invited users or posted summaries.

Step 8 — Pilot, validate, cutover

Run a two-week pilot with a representative cross-functional team. Validate performance, SSO, asset loading times, and device policies. Use real meeting scenarios (design reviews, onboarding) to surface missing features.

Pilot checklist

All users can authenticate and join within 30 seconds.
Assets load under acceptable thresholds (3–5s for models, <1s for small textures).
Recordings are generated and retrievable in configured storage.
Support runbook covers common headset issues and rollback steps.

Step 9 — Enforce compliance, retention and auditing

After migration, map retention and eDiscovery requirements to the new storage and identity stacks.

Enable logging and audit trails for meeting joins, recording downloads, and admin actions.
Use object lifecycle policies to retain or archive materials per legal requirements.
Integrate logs into SIEM (Splunk, Sentinel) and run periodic audits.

Step 10 — Training, documentation and support

Migration is as much human as technical. Provide short training sessions, quick-start guides and runbooks for both users and first-line support teams.

Create one-pagers: how to join meetings, where assets are stored, and how to request an export.
Record walkthrough videos of common tasks and link them to your intranet.
Publish an escalation path: helpdesk -> XR platform owner -> security team.

Risk matrix & rollback planning

Plan for the three most likely risks and their mitigations:

Missing assets: Mitigation — keep immutable copies of exports and provide a submission form for users to upload missing files.
Auth failures: Mitigation — maintain dual sign-in windows and pre-warm SSO configurations for pilot users.
Device provisioning errors: Mitigation — keep a small pool of pre-configured headsets to lend and a documented manual provisioning path.

Platform trade-offs — hosting & deployment quick comparison

Below are practical trade-offs to help procurement and platform owners choose hosting models:

Vendor-managed SaaS: fastest to deploy, lower ops, but limited customization and potential vendor lock-in. Good for small teams.
Self-hosted Horizon-like: greater control and compliance, higher ops cost and upfront engineering. Good for companies with strict data residency needs.
Web-first deployments: lowest friction for multi-device access, fuller control over hosting (cloud + CDN), but requires dev investment to match immersive UX.

Sample migration timeline (12 weeks)

Week 0–1: Communication and inventory
Week 1–2: Export critical recordings and whiteboards
Week 2–4: Choose platform, set up MDM and SSO
Week 4–6: Pilot with 10–20 users
Week 6–10: Migrate recurring meetings and assets
Week 10–12: Organization-wide cutover and post-migration audits

Actionable migration checklist

[ ] Inventory users, meetings and assets
[ ] Export recordings, whiteboards, and chat logs
[ ] Choose target platform and verify SSO compatibility
[ ] Provision MDM and policy profiles for Quest headsets
[ ] Host assets on S3/CDN and validate asset load times
[ ] Recreate recurring meetings and reconfigure calendar invites
[ ] Pilot, validate, and train users
[ ] Run post-migration compliance audit

Advanced strategies & 2026-forward recommendations

As enterprise VR matures in 2026, consider these forward-looking strategies:

Multi-channel meeting access: Build or buy solutions that allow the same meeting to be joined by Quest headsets, desktops (WebXR), and mobile clients. This reduces single-vendor risk.
Decouple assets from the vendor: Keep authoring and canonical storage outside of single-vendor silos. Use glTF as canonical 3D interchange and store originals in your cloud storage.
Automate exports: Where possible, automate periodic exports of meeting data to your backup bucket — make this part of your backup policy.
Plan for wearables & AR: Meta’s investment shift toward AI-powered wearables (e.g., smart glasses) suggests future collaboration will be mixed-reality. Favor platforms and assets that adapt to smaller-form AR displays.

Final notes and next steps

This migration is both an opportunity and a risk. The removal of Workrooms forces a deliberate evaluation of your collaboration stack: whether you use Horizon, a third-party VR vendor, or a WebXR-first approach, the right path depends on your compliance needs, existing identity ecosystem, and tolerance for vendor-managed tooling.

Key immediate tasks: export critical meeting data, lock down device management, and pilot a new platform within 30 days. Use the checklist above as your migration playbook and treat asset hosting and identity as the non-negotiable foundations.

Call to action

Need a tailored migration plan? Our team at Tecksite helps IT and dev teams build migration pipelines, automate exports and implement scalable hosting for XR assets. Book a migration audit or download our turnkey XR migration templates to map your Workrooms exit strategy into a secure, low-disruption cutover.

Unknown

Contributor

Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.