By Metaverse Watcher Staff | October 23, 2026
VRChat has moved full facial tracking out of the add-on ecosystem and into its own avatar toolkit. The platform’s Open Beta client on Steam and Avatars SDK version 3.10.6-beta.1 and later now support native, SDK-level face tracking, configured through a new Face Tracking section in the Avatar Descriptor. VRChat published the third beta of that SDK, 3.10.6-beta.3, today, and UploadVR first reported the feature’s arrival in open beta.
What changed
VRChat has accepted eye and face tracking data for years, but only through OSC (Open Sound Control) and the community-built VRCFaceTracking (VRCFT) app. Out of the box, avatars could use eye tracking only for basic gaze and eyelid movement. Anything more expressive, such as cheek puffs, tongue movement or asymmetric smiles, required third-party driver prefabs and a hand-built animator setup.
The new system makes that a first-party feature. According to VRChat’s release notes, it:
- Uses tracking keys based on the Unified Expressions standard that VRCFT established, so existing community conventions carry over.
- Drives blendshapes and visemes across multiple meshes, with a Viseme Dampen option to balance tracked mouth movement against audio-driven lip sync.
- Lets creators layer Blendshapes Sets (for example a “happy” or “bored eyelids” set) and control their weights from the animator or through new Parameter Behaviors.
- Syncs face tracking over the network without using the avatar’s synced parameter budget, which has long been a hard limit for expressive avatars.
- Works with VRChat’s Selfie Expression webcam tracking on desktop PC and Android, and with OSC tracking through a new
/tracking/face/v1address.
New Face Tracking Operations and Forwarded Parameters statistics now count toward avatar Performance Ranks, so heavy setups will show up in the same rating system users already filter by. VRChat says new features may require client version 2026.4.1 or higher, the same open beta build that introduced the Safety Center and feature-level restrictions we covered last week.
Why it matters
The synced-parameter change is the practical headline. VRCFT-style avatars have had to spend scarce synced parameters to show facial expressions to other players, which forced trade-offs against toggles, outfits and other features. Moving that sync into the platform should mean lighter avatars, more consistent expressions for everyone in an instance, and better performance, as UploadVR notes. VRChat first previewed the design in its September 24 developer update under the name “High Fidelity Face Tracking,” and says it ran a closed beta with creators including Hash and the VRCFT team before opening it up.
It also widens who sees the benefit. Face tracking used to be a niche reserved for owners of headsets with tracking cameras and users willing to run extra software. Because the native system also reads Selfie Expression data from a webcam or phone camera, desktop and Android players can now drive the same expressive avatars without any headset at all. For hardware buyers weighing which headset to pick, our best VR headsets of 2026 guide covers the current field.
The gaps creators are flagging
The beta does not yet support the Unified Expressions Blended Shapes or Simplified Parameters, such as SmileFrownLeft/Right and EyeLidLeft/Right. A feedback-board request argues that most existing VRCFT avatars and prefabs were built around those shortcuts, and that converting them today means recreating VRCFT’s formulas by hand. Until that is addressed, migration will be easiest for new avatars and for packages whose creators publish updated versions. Hash has already released beta variants of several popular Booth avatar packages built on the new SDK.
VRChat’s standard beta warning applies: all systems may change, and content uploaded with a beta SDK may break in future versions. The SDK still targets Unity 2022.3, and VRChat explicitly tells creators not to upgrade projects to Unity 6.
Also in SDK 3.10.6
Face tracking is the largest item, but the release also adds a VRCPlacementZone component that lets world creators block or allow portals, stickers and sharing pedestals in specific areas; VRCBillboard and VRCVelocityTracker components for worlds; Material Contacts that pass contact data to shaders; a smoothing factor for VRChat Constraints; and version 1.1 of avatar raycasts, which can now hit other players. Placement controls fit the same moderation push behind VRChat’s recent ban on deceptive AI world thumbnails.
What to watch
VRChat has not given a date for moving native face tracking to the live client. The signals to watch are whether Blended Shapes and Simplified Parameters land in a later 3.10.6 beta, how quickly major avatar sellers ship updated packages, and whether the VRCFT app keeps a role as the OSC bridge for headset tracking data. For players, nothing changes until avatars are rebuilt for the new system. For creators, this is the moment to test, since feedback during the beta is what will shape the final version.
Sources: VRChat SDK 3.10.6 release notes, VRChat Developer Update, September 24, 2026, UploadVR, vrchat/packages on GitHub.