Oculus is launching multi-user accounts and app sharing next month
Each user will need their own Facebook account.
Starting next month, Quest 2 owners will be able to create separate accounts for anybody they’re sharing their VR headset with. Oculus has announced that it’s rolling out multi-user accounts and app sharing, which it says are two of its users’ most requested features. The multi-user feature enables the primary account owner to add up to three secondary accounts on their device, and each one will get personalized game progress and achievements. In addition, they’ll be able to share their app purchases with the secondary accounts.
Both will launch as experimental features on the Quest 2 next month before making their way to the original Quest. To be able to access them, all primary and secondary users will have to log in with their Facebook accounts. Oculus started requiring users to log in with Facebook (its parent company) last year, and they can only log into their device with existing Oculus accounts until January 1st, 2023. It was a policy change that wasn’t well received by the Oculus community.
The company believes the features can help increase household usage, as well as prevent piracy. It also expects more households to get multiple Quest devices in the coming years, which is why app sharing will allow a primary account holder to share their purchases across three devices in the future. The company also says it will evaluate whether it needs to adjust the number of devices and secondary accounts allowed as it receives feedback from its user community.
When app sharing launches next month, though, primary accounts can only switch on app sharing on one headset, even if they can log into multiple devices at once. Further, secondary accounts can’t share apps with other accounts, even if they were purchases made on that particular Quest. Take note that the only way a headset’s primary account can be changed is through factory reset.
The company is allowing developers to opt out of app sharing at the moment, but all new Rift or Quest apps submitted to the Oculus platform should have the feature starting on February 13th, 2021.
