Facebook’s latest version of Messenger literally sits on your face thanks to Oculus VR headsets
This was inevitable.
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If you’re an Oculus headset owner, you’ll soon be able to chat on Facebook Messenger, right from the comfort of your face. The new feature is rolling out to anyone who owns an Oculus Quest or Quest 2 and has signed in with their Facebook account, so you won’t have to take off your headset to interact with the real world.
This is part of Facebook’s meshing of all of its services together, making it so you’ll be able to use Facebook’s chat services wherever you are. You can still use Oculus Chat if you prefer, although we don’t hold any hope for that to still be an option in the future.
While still in virtual reality, you’ll be able to type messages, send pre-set phrases, or use voice-to-text so you don’t have to wrestle with virtual keyboards. You can also start an Oculus Party from Messenger, making VR multiplayer matchmaking easier.
That’s not all that’s coming in the v25 software update though, with Facebook making it easier for VR developers to distribute software without having to go through the Oculus Store, or without users taking the risk of sideloading apps. Called App Lab, think of it as a secondary Oculus Store for in-development or experimental games that aren’t as polished as the Store content.
You can find App Lab games on Oculus search if you know the full name, or you can browse on SideQuest for more titles. If you don’t see the v25 update on your Quest or Quest 2 just yet, it’ll be coming soon as Oculus rolls it out to more users.
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