Facebook announced today that multi-user accounts and the sharing of apps between accounts will be available on Oculus Quest headers from next month.
According to Facebook, these are two of the most requested features of Quest users. This goes hand in hand: not only will multiple users be able to sign in to a headset from next month, but the primary account of the headset will be able to share their apps and purchases with secondary accounts on the same device. It allows multiple users to progress through a game or experience with their own progress, saving files and achievements.
Both primary and secondary accounts still require a login on Facebook. Sharing apps only applies locally to secondary accounts on a headset, not across multiple headers. For example, a primary account can share its contents with a secondary account that is also logged on to the same headset. But if the owner of that secondary account logged in as the primary account on their own headset, they would not have had access to the other user’s content on that device unless they purchased it themselves.
A primary account can share all of its content with the secondary accounts on the headset, but it does not work the other way around – the primary account will not have access to any content related to a secondary account that they do not yet own. The secondary accounts can make their own purchases on a shared device, but it will not be shared with the other accounts logged in to the headset.
However, the sharing of multi-devices is imminent – Facebook said it would expand later so that a primary account holder could share their purchases on three devices. The report also noted that the only way to change the primary user on a headset is to restore the factory setting.
Based on the information above, it seems that the best option for a household with multiple Quest headphones is just one person’s account logged in as the primary account on everyone devices, with other members then logged on to their own headsets as secondary bills. If everything is purchased only on the primary account, all the users in the family have equal access to the same content without complications.
All new apps submitted to the Oculus Store from February 13 will be need to support app sharing. Existing programs are automatically signed up for program sharing from February 13, but can subscribe until February 12 for “contractual or other reasons.”
The features will first roll out as experimental, allowing a primary account to add up to three secondary accounts from next month. You can read more on the Oculus Developer blog.