Facebook Messenger Oculus Quest support is coming in the near future, the company has confirmed.
The news was revealed during the Facebook Connect stream yesterday. Facebook Reality Lab’s Head of Product Marketing Meaghan Fitzgerald took to the stream to talk about the social VR aspects of the company’s work going forwards.
After talking about the recently-launched betas for Facebook Horizon and Oculus Venues, Fitzgerald confirmed that Messenger was coming “to the Quest platform” sometime in the future. A graphic showed an Oculus party invite going out on Messenger’s mobile app before Fitzgerald also confirmed you’ll be able to use the service in-VR to talk with Facebook friends and jump into games together.
Messenger is Facebook’s instant messaging app, native to the platform. On browser, you can access it whilst on Facebook itself, and it also has a dedicated app for smartphones. We’ll be interested to see just how key it becomes to the Quest ecosystem in the months to come.
“We’ve heard that people want easier ways to find each other in VR. To coordinate and jump into apps and experiences together,” Fitzgerald said ahead of announcing the news. “And of course, for us to easily find each other in those apps.”
A specific release date for Messenger integration wasn’t revealed, though the news comes just as Facebook reveals the Oculus Quest 2, an improved and cheaper headset with a better display and more powerful innards. The kit is launching on October 13th for $299 for the 64GB version and $399 for the 256GB version. Expect to see more news about Facebook Messenger on Oculus Quest going on from launch, then.
