Valve’s Steam Link public beta for Meta Quest can now stream PC VR over a data-capable USB-C cable, not only Wi-Fi. Horizon OS 2.5’s Android USB networking (NCM) is the door Virtual Desktop already walked through.
UploadVR reports that the latest Steam Link for Meta Quest Public Beta adds wired USB PC streaming. The path is not a proprietary Quest Link clone. It rides Meta’s platform support for Android USB networking (NCM) that shipped in Horizon OS 2.5 and later: an app can request a direct network link to a host PC over USB after the user approves the system-wide permission.
How the cable path works
UploadVR’s write-up is short and concrete. Launch Steam Link, then plug in a data-capable USB-C cable. An active USB session currently shows as a cycling Wi-Fi signal on the SteamVR dock—an odd UI choice, but the tell for “this is not your router anymore.” That is enough to matter for apartments with crowded 5 GHz channels, for setups where the PC is Ethernet-only and the headset keeps dropping, and for anyone who already bought a Link cable for Meta’s own PC streaming stack.
Getting into the build is a beta stack, not a store toggle. UploadVR points readers to Valve’s Steam Link for Meta Quest Public Beta channel (Meta account required), the SteamVR Beta on PC, and the Steam Client Beta. The client beta is listed as a prerequisite for wired USB streaming without Wi-Fi.
Still half-finished in testing
Here is the caveat that keeps this from being a “cut the router” story. UploadVR’s tester found Steam Link still failed to find the host PC with Wi-Fi off. Discovery seemed to need an active Wi-Fi path first, then a switch to USB for the stream. That is a beta smell, not a finished product claim. Treat the feature as available in the public beta channel, not as a fully offline cable mode yet.
Valve’s public Steam Link / Remote Play pages still frame Quest streaming as wireless—Wi-Fi 5 on 5 GHz, PC wired to the router, Quest 2 / 3 / Pro. The store copy has not caught up to the beta. Wired USB is a Public Beta addition following Virtual Desktop’s earlier NCM implementation, not a rewrite of Valve’s marketing sheet.
Why it lands now
September’s Quest calendar is already packed with software releases and Horizon OS 2.7’s gamepad emulation for Steam Link and Xbox Cloud. A wired Steam Link beta sits next to that stack as plumbing, not a headline game. For PC VR owners who keep Quest as a wireless HMD and SteamVR as the library, it closes a long-standing gap: Meta Link and ALVR could go wired; Steam Link, until this beta, mostly could not.
Steam Frame still owns Valve’s first-party headset story. This update is about the Quest install base Valve already courted with a free Steam Link app. If the discovery step sheds the Wi-Fi dependency in a later beta, the feature stops being a curiosity and becomes the default recommendation for anyone whose Wi-Fi is the weak link in the pipe.
Sources: UploadVR, Steam Link / Remote Play (Valve), UploadVR on Horizon OS 2.7.