Quest's Meta Horizon Store Now Accepts 2D Android Apps

The Meta Horizon Store now accepts 2D Android apps, which could bring more apps and services to the platform.

This means developers of existing apps on the Google Play Store or other Android app stores can bring their app to Quest headsets without needing to add any specific support for the technology.

These apps can be run alongside other 2D apps and windows in Horizon OS, and even brought up inside immersive apps and games.

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A major roadblock however is that many 2D Android apps rely on Google Play Services, which isn't available on Horizon OS. Meta says that later this year it will release a 2D Android version of its Platform SDK which offers some of the same features as Google Play Services, such as authentication and in-app payments. Integrating this will take time and effort for developers, though, which may put them off porting their 2D apps to Quest.

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Developers can also extend their 2D apps into 3D space and add support for mixed reality features using the new Meta Spatial SDK, but using it isn't compulsory to bring a 2D app to Horizon OS.