Announced at Connect 2021, Quest apps can soon send User Notifications if you allow them.
Notifications will be delivered in VR and will also appear in the Alerts tab of the Oculus mobile app. Additionally, Meta says a machine learning algorithm will push a small number of “relevant” notifications to your phone, from the apps you use the most.
Developers will be able to create two types of notifications: Campaign and Triggered. Campaign notifications are manually sent once to all users or a subset such as the most or least active. Triggered notifications are personalized, pushed automatically based on a specific user’s context.
For example, a Campaign notification could be used to promote a new DLC, while a Triggered notification could let you know that a friend tried out the user generated content you created.
As on your smartphone, VR apps will need to ask for permission to send notifications. In Settings you can disable or customize notifications on a per-app level.
Even with the controls available, phone notifications have a reputation for being overused for marketing rather than useful essential purposes. Will Quest developers use notifications responsibly, or will these concerns carry forward to VR?
