all your smartphone in VR soon?

June 14, 2021

Oculus Quest Android app: all your favorite apps from your smartphone will soon be available in your VR headset.

Android app accessible in your Oculus Quest?

 Oculus Quest 2 $ 349 | Setup of my Quest 2 | VR news | Current VR games promotions

Last week several people were surprised to discover Android apps in their Quest menu. This integration is currently not confirmed by Facebook. However, the Quest being an Android smartphone overall, this would not be surprising.

I know this is quite possible, indeed in June 2020 I offered you a tutorial to add Android games and apps to the original Quest.

I’ll share with you the Android apps that were momentarily displayed on some Oculus Quest and how to find them.

How to access Android Apps on Oculus Quest 2?

For that nothing could be simpler according to the stealth videos on the subject. It suffices:

  • Go to the Oculus Store from your Quest headset,

  • Select the first line in the left menu

  • Scroll all the way down to see the last category of apps (My preview Apps). The Preview App section of the store is where you can find games and experiences that are usually preview releases, often reserved for private beta testing and press previews.

Android apps running on an Oculus Quest appear the same as the Oculus browser. A floating window opens to your Oculus environment.

Free Android Apps for Quest 2

Both the Oculus Quest and the Quest 2 have a chip that works with the Android operating system. Allowing users to install and run these apps on the headset in “flat” mode could result in a massive new set of apps, including various web browsers, video players, games, and utilities.

To me, it seems clear that Facebook is very keen on making us wear our Quest more and more often and for more and more things. Among them, obviously favor theaccess to our social networks favorite.

As proof of this, the very recent launch of the new Oculus avatars. Customizations that could take shape in some applications like Zoom, Snapshat or even Tik-Tok.

  • Spotify

  • Snap

  • Tik Tok

  • Zoom

But also with Infinite Office, alloffice universe, to use the Quest as a new display screen for our PC or as an Internet browser. Here again, some clues confirm this direction with the arrival of the Logitech K830 keyboard specially developed for the Q2. It allows you to see the keys with your hands in transparency and to access its touchpad

  • Adobe acrobat

  • Adobe draw

  • Adobe Lightroom

  • Adobe Photoshop Express

  • Adobe sketch

  • Proton Mail

  • MS Excel

  • MS OneNote

  • Microsoft Outlook

  • MS PowerPoint

  • MS Remote Desktop

  • Word

It seems that all of its apps are the official versions, but as yet unpublished. However, the app’s image gallery is currently empty and the link to the developer site returns to an error page. As shown in this Quest screenshot for the Spotify app in the More Info section:

Spotify Oculus Quest 2

If that happens, hopefully we can finally launch Netflix and download movies, or Spotify, so that we can use the headset without an internet connection.

A very plausible rumor

Facebook, contacted by several journalists, said it had nothing official to say on the subject for the moment. However, John Carmack, CTO of Oculus Consulting, mentioned in late 2020 that while he was pushing for Android apps to be integrated into Oculus Quest, he was failing to “win” the debate internally at Facebook. If Oculus isn’t just testing the waters, it looks like Carmack has finally won this debate.

But the videos viewed show that the official and simple integration, without going through the sideload copy of APK, is well in preparation.

So, tell me in the comments what you think of the arrival of Android apps in your Quest?

Fan of VR, subscribe to never miss an article and receive it directly by email