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As promised in January, Oculus From Facebook began rolling out two experimental and highly requested features for its Oculus Quest headsets: multi-user accounts and application sharing.
The new features will enable multiple accounts to log into a single headset, and apps purchased by the owner of the headset, also referred to as the administrator account, can be shared with those accounts.
Multi-user accounts and app sharing will initially be rolled out for the Oculus Quest 2 as experimental features, with the goal of refining the experience before extending them to all Quest users.
Primary account holders will start out with the ability to add up to three secondary accounts, as well as to enable app sharing on a single device. Admin accounts and additional account holders must all login to the shared device via their respective Facebook accounts.
Additional account holders can only access the admin account’s shared apps on the device that has app sharing enabled. If an additional account holder purchases or already owns another Oculus device, the admin account’s shared apps will not be accessible on that device.
Elements including browser history, friend lists, game achievements, game progress and privacy settings will be unique to each account, and an unlock pattern enables users to lock their accounts before handing the device off to other users.
Additional account holders can purchase their own apps and content on shared devices, but it will not be accessible by anyone else, including the admin account.
Oculus users will still be able to log into multiple devices at the same time, but the same account cannot be used to run the same app across multiple devices simultaneously.
Admin accounts cannot be changed without a factory reset. And while admin accounts can add additional accounts on devices, additional accounts cannot do so.
Oculus said app sharing will apply automatically to all new apps in the Oculus Quest Store as of Thursday, adding that a limited number of existing games will not be available through app sharing right away, without users purchasing their own copies, but it expects most of those apps to support additional users over time.
Facebook’s virtual reality unit wrote, “VR is a social experience, and that doesn’t just mean online multiplayer. We know Quest has become a shared device for many of you. We want to make it easier to share your Quest with the people you care about, whether with a partner, a roommate, family or friends. After all, how many first-time VR experiences start with someone saying, ‘Hey, check this out,’ and passing the headset? But letting other people use your Quest and try VR for the first time shouldn’t mean they have unfettered access to your account details, to say nothing of your hard-won Pistol Whip high scores.”
