What happened to Update 24?…anyway, Oculus Quest and Quest 2 update #25 is soon upon us and with it will come Oculus App Lab.
Oculus App Lab is “a new way for developers to share their creations safely and securely with Quest owners without Store approval. App Lab doesn’t require sideloading or any special setup. You just click on a link, go directly to the app, and download it.”
You can start exploring App Lab by checking out a few of the experiences that launched today, including:
- Ancient Dungeon Beta by ErThu
- Baby Hands by Chicken Waffle
- Crisis VRigade and Crisis VRigade 2 by Sumalab
- Deisim by Myron Software
- Descent Alps – Demo by Sutur
- Gym Class by IRL Studios Inc
- MarineVerse Cup by MarineVerse
- Puzzling Places – Beta by realities.io Inc
- Spark AR Player by Facebook
- Smash Drums Demo by PotamWorks
- Zoe by apelab
This is a great move by Oculus and great for smaller developers and developers wishing to bring more experiment VR games to the Quest.
“Developers can distribute their apps through links like the ones above, or send keys directly to players if they wish to carefully control access. App Lab titles are not housed in the Oculus Store, though they can be searched by exact name and found in the “App Lab” section of results. Still, it is on developers to promote their games as they see fit. SideQuest supports App Lab apps starting today, and community-focused platforms of that nature may play a bigger role in Quest’s future—without the hassle of sideloading APKs. “
Apps purchased from App Lab will appear in a user’s Quest library alongside their Store purchases, and will receive automatic updates just like apps in the Quest Store.
One of my favourite titles, Crisis VRigade and its sequel will be available to install on your Quest/Quest 2, Pavlov will also soon be available via App Lab also. This is a great time for Quest and its library of titles. This wouldn’t be possible without the thanks of SideQuest, who has clearly pushed Oculus to support smaller and obscure titles on the Quest.
Update 25 is rolling out now, and we already have a few people who have managed to get the update showing off some Update 25 previews of what to expect in the update, which also include integration of Facebook Messenger.
