Welcome to the Developer Update for September 10, 2026.
Today’s featured world is Nel Blu by Fins.
Announcements
Spookality!!!
The Spookality Jam has begun!
We announced it last time, but we just want to keep it fresh in your mind while it’s going on. Here are the important dates:
- Submissions Open: Sept 3 - Oct 1
- Judging Period: Oct 2 - Oct 15
- Showcase Period: Oct 16 - Nov 2
Also, once again, in the spirit of the jam, we’ve decided to feature ALL eligible entries in the Home/Hub world for Spookality, even if they didn’t win a prize.
VRChat Partners With Crisis Text Line
VRChat has partnered with Crisis Text Line – a nonprofit that provides text-based support for anyone in crisis. The Crisis Text Line is supported by trained volunteer Crisis Counselors who are there to listen without judgment, no matter what you’re going through.
Using the Crisis Text Line is easy – just text VRChat to 741741. Volunteers can communicate in either English or Spanish.
“Crisis” can mean more than thinking about ending your own life or harming yourself. Support is available, no matter what emotion you’re dealing with, and no matter when you need support.
Your mental health is important to us. We want to make it as easy and fast as possible for you to get the help you need, or to help a friend or loved one get help.
For more information, you can read a transcript of the above video here. You can also directly go to our Crisis Resource Page here.
Creators Roadmap August 2026 Update
We updated the Creators Roadmap last week!
You can see it here.
There’s a lot in there! There are three brand new things on our roadmap that weren’t there previously, including Portal Drop Zones, which weren’t previously mentioned.
Go check 'em out.
2026.3.3 is in Open Beta!
Yesterday, we pushed 2026.3.3 to Open Beta! This release has a bunch of notable changes (and fixes).
Desktop HUD!
Desktop users now have a new Heads Up Display (HUD)!
Common actions have been given their own clickable HUD buttons in the top left and right corners of the screen.
Holding TAB while in first person mode will release your mouse cursor and allow you to interact with the HUD. You can also hold TAB to select players, portals, props and prints.
The new Desktop HUD has a lot of tricks:
- You can dock your face mirror to the upper right corner, alongside a background… or no background, if you’d prefer.
- We added some contextual control hints to the right side of the HUD that should help newer users out.
- Notifications have also been given a new coat of paint.
- We’ve added a bunch of customization options, so you can set things up how you’d like.
- Yes, this still includes turning it off completely.
- For now, this only applies to desktop users – not VR or mobile users.
We think this will make the new user experience a lot better, more familiar, and less confusing.
Keyboard Refresh!
We’ve refreshed the in-app keyboard!
It has broken free of its shackles (well, the Main Menu within VR) and now can be freely positioned to your liking. It’s also been remodeled (design wise!) a little bit, too.
It’s also far more adjustable:
- It can be free-positioned by pressing grab while hovering over it with the cursor.
- Drop it by the selected field to dock it with the menu. Next time you focus a text field, it’ll remember what distance it was.
- Alternatively, you can pull it out away from the menu to dock it in your tracking space instead.
- You can also adjust its size by clicking and dragging the tabs on the bottom corners.
But that’s not all! We’ve also added next-word prediction, which suggests words you’ve typed before.
- Click a suggested word to complete your current word immediately!
- History data is stored locally per-user in persistent data, never uploaded.
- Suggestions are automatically disabled in Streamer Mode, and when a PIN/Password field is focused.
Profile Decorations Shop
We added a new “Profile Decorations” tab to the VRChat Shop.
- You can now purchase individual decorations from a set instead of the entire bundle.
- Filter by decoration type to browse all Icon Frames, Profile Effects, or Nameplate Themes.
- Fancy new live previews of how decorations will look on your profile and nameplate!
This also came with a new navigation bar for the VRChat Shop, along with dropdowns. We also consolidated “World Stores” and “Group Stores” under a new “Community” tab.
Other Changes!
There are a lot of other cool things in 3.3. For example:
- We rewrote how we handle user data. This is a under-the-hood change, but it should make a lot of systems more stable, efficient, and reliable.
- We made it so Looks are remembered, per-avatar. In general, there are a bunch of improvements to Looks/Accessories.
- We added a new “Net Tools” debugging page. This should help creators figure out what’s going wrong a lot easier.
- We made a few improvements to contact receivers!
It’s not super visible yet (because it’s mostly for mobile!) but this release will also bring a completely new login flow for mobile users. This is actually a huge deal, as it’s a huge improvement for new users. We think it’ll make it better for everyone, though.
Likewise, this release will also bring the VRChat Shop to Android mobile, which is obviously another big deal for us.
…and more! Read about it here.
Group Nameplate Banners
We are working diligently to get the separate upload slot for Nameplate banners ready for you, but in the meantime the template that we posted earlier is currently the live template that we’ve been using.
Groups can use this now to make their nameplates consistent.
Closing
That’s it for this week! See you in another two weeks.
Great! 
