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Latest Quest 2 Update Brings Encrypted Messenger, Parental App Locks & More

From roadtovr

Meta rolled out a new Quest update that brings to the headset some previously revealed stuff, such as app-based locks and tracking support for more keyboards, but also some new features too which the company hopes will instill more confidence in user privacy, including encryption for text and voice chats through Messenger and in-headset 3D Secure payments.

In the Quest v40 update, Meta is testing end-to-end encryption for Messenger’s one-on-one messages and calls in VR, which is now offered as an opt-in feature. The company initially rolled out encryption for Messenger on non-VR devices as far back as 2016, however this is the first time it’s offered on Quest headsets.

“Keeping your information secure is one of our top priorities, not just in VR but across Meta apps and technologies. When people trust that their conversations are truly private, they feel safe to express themselves and build stronger online connections,” the company says in a blog post.

Image courtesy Meta

Meta says you can check the privacy of your communication by comparing keys with someone. “If the keys match, messages and calls are secured with end-to-end encryption,” says a description of the feature.

Quest v40 also includes the app-based lock feature which was previously announced as a part of the company’s growing suite of parental controls. This lets parents restrict access to certain apps, requiring them to input a pattern to unlock content that might otherwise be unsuitable for their kid’s age. Meta calls it a “starting point for parents as we begin rolling out our parental supervision tools in the coming months.”

The update brings a new spin on how users enter 3D Secure info when using a credit card too. Before the update, users would have to input 3D Secure directly on the Oculus mobile app, however now you can manage the extra authorization layer whilst in VR.

And keeping users in VR seems to be the major theme with v40, as the update also now includes keyboard tracking support for the Apple Magic Keyboard with numeric keypad, and both the Logitech K375s and Logitech MX Keys.

First introduced last year, keyboard tracking lets you see a virtual version of a keyboard inside your headset to make typing easier. Until now, the only two supported keyboards were Logitech K830 and Apple Magic Keyboard (sans keypad).

Lastly, Meta has added two new options to its Accessibility menu which it aims to make Quest more comfortable for people who are hard of hearing: Mono Audio option, which disables spatial audio by projecting the same audio from both the left and right speakers, and the ability to adjust balance of the left and right audio channels.

To see if you already have v40, simply pop on your Quest 2, go to Quick Settings –> Settings –> System –> Software Update. There you can see the software version running on your headset and whether an update is available or not.

One of the Last Bastions of the Oculus Brand is No More

From roadtovr

Alongside the announcement of the company’s first retail store, Meta has begun redirecting visitors of the longstanding Oculus.com website to its new Meta Store.

Facebook announced back in late 2021 that it would rebrand itself to Meta and eventually dissolve the Oculus brand. In 2022 the company has steadily taken steps to make this a reality, including rebranding its flagship VR headset, Oculus Quest 2, as Meta Quest 2. The company has also pushed the Meta Quest brand elsewhere by replacing the Oculus logo in various places.

The Oculus logo and type under Facebook

But one steadfast holdout was Oculus.com, the URL of company’s front-facing VR division for many years, which housed the storefront for the company to sell headsets along with its VR app catalogue. Even after the site’s content had fully moved to Meta Quest branding, the URL still read Oculus.com.

Today Meta continued its move to erase the Oculus brand; if you visit Oculus.com you’ll now be redirected to store.facebook.com/quest. The new site is a unified storefront for all of Meta’s hardware products, which right now is just Quest, Portal, and Ray-Ban Stories.

The move came at the same time the company announced it will be opening its first retail store which will also feature all of its hardware products.

Meta must have been in a rush to make the switch, as it oddly dropped Oculus.com URL in favor of a Facebook.com URL (instead of a Meta.com, which the company appears to control).

A large portion of the VR community were blindsided by Meta’s decision to dissolve the Oculus brand which has held very positive sentiment despite the growing unpopularity of the Facebook brand which owned it (prior to the change to Meta). The brand was so iconic that it’s still common to see people refer to any of the company’s headsets as ‘the Oculus’.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, who was booted from the company back in 2017, suggested that Meta should have embraced the Oculus name even more deeply, rather than dissolve it.

“If anything, they should have renamed the whole company Oculus [instead of Meta]. It isn’t just the best brand in their stable, it is one of the most positively associated brands in existence,” Luckey said recently on Twitter. “Not even Quest branding will survive in the long run. It will all be replaced by Meta.”

For execs at Meta, however, the move makes sense. The company has made a big pivot toward focusing on the metaverse and wanted to point its hardware and software in that direction in a unified way. Instead of Oculus Quest, Facebook Horizon, and Facebook Portal, now it’s Meta Quest, Meta Horizon, and Meta Portal.

Only time will tell if the branding move was the right choice—or even if it really matters at all—but the general sentiment among XR industry & enthusiast folks is that the Oculus brand was liked and will be missed.

But Oculus.com isn’t completely dead. Not yet, anyway. Although Oculus.com now redirects to a Facebook.com URL, the Oculus.com domain still houses the company’s entire VR app catalogue and its VR developer resources; meanwhile, the Quest companion smartphone app, which is required to use the headset, is still called ‘Oculus’. Though it seems likely these too will be retired in favor of Meta branding before the year is out.