The redesigned Oculus Quest UI which Facebook announced last week started rolling out to Oculus Quest users.
The new UI will be available as part of the V15 Oculus Quest firmware update, and has to be enabled in the ‘Experimental Features’ tab of the settings menu after installation. The firmware update also includes a few new features, such as speech-to-text options for the keyboard and a shortcut for Passthrough, alongside some Oculus Link bug fixes.
The firmware update will “become available throughout the week of March 23, 2020” according to Facebook. In the past, previous updates adopted a gradual rollout scheme with no set timeframe. The phrasing for this latest update seems to imply the gradual rollout will take place this week and may be available to all users by next week at the latest.
In addition to the UI overhaul, the update also includes a ‘Passthrough Shortcut’ experimental feature as well. This allows users to temporarily see the real world with Passthrough by double tapping the side of the headset. Oculus Browser will also integrate multi-window support in V15, as announced alongside the UI redesign.
Oculus Link received several bug fixes and improvements, including a fix for the black screen bug where Link would only show black video but still provide tracking and audio cues. Oculus Link also has a ‘Test Connection’ feature which will indicate to you, during setup, whether your connection is compatible, as well as the available bandwidth of the cable and the connection type.
New social features are also available in V15, such as joining parties through invitation notifications on the Oculus app before entering VR. Likewise, in-VR notifications have been visually updated and the Quest keyboard now offers a speech-to-text option for typing. That being said, Oculus notes that this speech-to-text feature will only be available ‘to a percentage of users at this time.’
You can read the full release notes for V15 over on the Oculus forums.
What do you think of Oculus Quest V15 and the redesigned UI? Let us know in the comments below.
