Oculus appears to be carrying out tests with Android app integration on Quest, which could see apps like Spotify and TikTok come to the popular standalone headset soon.
YouTuber ‘The Mysticle’ was one of the first to report the news, showing that he actually found a number of non-VR Android apps inside the ‘Preview Apps’ section of the official Oculus Store. The preview apps section of the store is typically where you can find games or experiences that are still in a pre-release state. Normally Oculus reserves it for apps on private beta testing or for press previews.
Nobody has since been able (including us) to replicate what ‘The Mysticle’ has revealed on his Twitter account. Nevertheless it does seem an interesting development for the Quest, which continues to innovate since its release a mere 7 months ago.
The Oculus Quest and Quest 2 both run on the Google-owned Android operating system. SideQuest recently released their own app for Android allowing users to sideload content from their phone. It’s not clear whether this would involve in-app integration, such as allowing you to play songs from Spotify while playing a game, or if these apps would run ‘flat’, like the Oculus browser.
Before stepping down in 2019, former Oculus CTO, John Carmack, had said previously that he would love to open up Oculus Quest to Android apps. While that didn’t happen during his venture, perhaps now is the right time for Oculus.
