The latest Oculus Quest update lets you easily invite others to play
Oculus is rolling out its v31 software update to Quest and Quest 2 headsets starting today, and it’s filled with some nice quality-of-life improvements. The big one is it’ll be easier to invite friends and recent teammates who aren’t friends to play a game or experience an app together. When you’re in game or in app, pressing the Oculus button will pull up the universal menu as usual, but soon, more apps will show a new “Invite to App” button next to the “Resume” and “Quit” buttons. If friends accept your invite, you’ll be able to see them in the menu. This feature will roll out soon in games like Beat Saber, Blaston, Demeo, Echo VR, ForeVR Bowl, Hyper Dash, PokerStars VR, and Topgolf with Pro Putt.
If you don’t want to corral the group within VR, an upcoming update to the Oculus app on iOS and Android will let you create a multiplayer session then and there. For supported games and apps, you’ll be able to whip up a link that can be shared with others to join the group. You can also choose how long the link will be active. Any major platform with a social component should have intuitive invite tools like these, and I’m glad to see that Oculus is making some progress here.
Other features coming in v31 may or may not get as much use, depending on how you use your Quest headset, but are nevertheless important. With the update, the Browser app will also gain the ability to save and autofill passwords, secured with an unlock pattern. Both the unlock pattern and passwords are stored on device, Oculus says in its press release.
Oculus is also adding send and read receipts to the Messenger app as well as reaction emoji — straight from Facebook. Admittedly, this should make it easier to respond to people instead of fumbling with the virtual keyboard.
If you’re waiting for v31 to hit your headset, keep in mind that it may take a few weeks to arrive on yours.
Oculus Quest v31 Adds Experimental Passthrough API
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is teasing that the upcoming v31 update for Oculus Quest “makes it easier to coordinate multiplayer games by sending friends pop-up invites, and gives developers access to Passthrough API Experimental to build and test mixed reality experiences.”
The update is coming “soon” with Zuckerberg posting to Facebook that more details are on the way. Recently, Zuckerberg himself has been the first to tease upcoming features for Oculus Quest as the company builds toward a so-called “Oculus Quest Pro” headset to release sometime after 2021. Though Facebook might bump the entry level $299 Quest 2 to 128 GB of storage, Facebook isn’t expected to release a new VR headset in the near future. Instead, the company is focusing on near-constant software updates to the system running Quest 2 to improve the overall experience. Last year, Facebook confirmed it would release an application programming interface (API) that would essentially allow for the development of AR apps on Oculus Quest and gave early access to Spatial, a remote work solution.
A blog post from Facebook details the multiplayer features alongside a new security settings panel that’s coming as well, but the post makes no mention of the passthrough API. Facebook rolls out new software updates for Quest over the course of weeks and even longer for some new or experimental features contained within those updates. An update last month for v30 added multitasking, for example, but we haven’t yet seen the feature on our Quest 2 headsets just yet.
With multitasking, a larger and smarter guardian system, major new game releases planned like Resident Evil 4, new avatars, and the beginnings of AR apps, Facebook is laying the groundwork for its Quest 2 headset to be a much more compelling platform heading into the holiday gift-buying season in 2021.
Oculus Quest v31 July update makes it easier to chat and play with friends
We might be patiently waiting for Facebook to announce the Oculus Quest Pro, but they’ve apparently been pretty busy adding more features to the existing two Oculus Quest headsets every month. The Oculus Quest v31 July update is making it easier to invite friends to games, chat with your friends over Facebook Messenger, and log in to your favorite websites with saved passwords in the Oculus Browser.
While you’re playing one of the best Oculus Quest 2 games, you’ll be able to more easily invite your friends to join a multiplayer session thanks to a dedicated invite button found when pressing the Oculus button on the right controller. This feature has to be supported by the game you’re playing, but Oculus is making this functionality available to all developers in the v31 Oculus SDK. This new feature will be first available in Beat Saber, Blaston, Demeo, Echo VR, ForeVR Bowl, Hyper Dash, PokerStars VR, and Topgolf with Pro Putt.