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Oculus social features now require a linked Facebook account

nalex66
MVP
MVP
Apparently, starting today, Oculus social features (friends list, parties, visiting people's Oculus Homes) will now require a linked Facebook account. This was already the case for some apps like Venues, and some features, like accessing your phone's camera roll in the Quest gallery. Going forward, new social features will demand a Facebook account, and now existing features will too.

Starting today, when you choose to log into
Facebook from the Oculus Platform, you’ll be able to access new social
features that make it easier for you to connect with other people,
including:

  • Chats, so you can message your Oculus friends in or out of the headset with quick responses to hop into games together
  • Join your friends
    in VR directly from any device with links that open to where your
    friends are within an app, and see the most popular destinations where
    people are playing in VR
  • User-created Events, so you can organize meetups or multiplayer games with friends
  • Share photos, videos, and livestreaming to Facebook, allowing you to share your favorite moments to Facebook Groups from VR
  • Parties that any of your Oculus friends can join (previously parties were only invite-only)
  • Messenger friends can easily join you in VR when you send them links to join you where you’re playing

As
these changes roll out and we make it easier for people to connect and
build communities in VR, we’ll ask people to log into Facebook from the
Oculus Platform to use both the new social features above, as well as
existing social features like joining parties, adding friends, and
visiting other people’s Homes. These features are already powered by
Facebook, since Oculus is part of the Facebook family of apps. And now
first-party social interactions on the Oculus Platform will be backed by
Facebook identity, allowing us to help keep people safer in VR as we
grow the social VR ecosystem.


Personally, I'm not excited to see this, but I guess it's not surprising. I've never had a FB account, and haven't been interested in creating one, but we'll see how it goes--the obvious answer is to create one just for Oculus-related activity and not populate it with a lot of personally identifying information.

DK2, CV1, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3.


Try my game: Cyclops Island Demo
180 REPLIES 180

edmg
Trustee
It was obvious that Facebook bought Oculus in order to create Facebook VR; it's the perfect 'social media' interface, and they want to be the ones who own social media in VR. I wouldn't particularly care if it was only required for doing Facebook VR stuff.

But given they're requiring a Facebook login for things other than Facebook, I will now be thinking carefully about whether I buy another Oculus product. I was planning to get a Rift S when I upgrade my PC next year, but I'll definitely be looking at the alternatives.

Anonymous
Not applicable
is this live yet?

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

Riotsu said:

Facebook has been going downhill for years now, and since they acquired oculus it is going down with it.



This hardly seems true though. Oculus is selling very well, with both their hardware and software; and are still considered the front-runner in consumer VR.

Facebook hasn't been going downhill at all. I know people say it has been going downhill, but Facebook's power and influence has only grown over the last 2 years. Not to mention that FB owns many other companies, including WhatsApp and Instagram. Instagram alone is a powerhouse.


Riotsu
Protege


Zenbane said:



This hardly seems true though. Oculus is selling very well, with both their hardware and software; and are still considered the front-runner in consumer VR.



I get where you're coming from Zenbane.  In terms of financial and political success facebook is not going downhill.  I was speaking in terms of ethics and active memberships.
Both Instagram and Oculus were high quality platforms before facebook purchased them, and still would be if they hadn't.  Oculus would have been better off without facebook.

StreetPreacher
Adventurer
Is this some kind of JOKE?!!? 
Everything was working fine until I updated my Rift, now I can't chat with my friend because it forces me to sign up through facebook, and I can't get it to sign in with facebook because I used a different email account to create the oculus account when I pre-ordered my rift when they first came out... 
So Facebook is now REQUIRED, but I'm not able to link my Rift with my facebook account, so I can't use any of the social features anymore lol.

GREAT JOB GUYS!

This is ridiculous.  It already WAS a social platform - people were constantly chatting and playing multiplayer games.  

Now we've had things taken away!

Nice one Zuck    😄 
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

nalex66
MVP
MVP


Is this some kind of JOKE?!!? 
Everything was working fine until I updated my Rift, now I can't chat with my friend because it forces me to sign up through facebook, and I can't get it to sign in with facebook because I used a different email account to create the oculus account when I pre-ordered my rift when they first came out... 
So Facebook is now REQUIRED, but I'm not able to link my Rift with my facebook account, so I can't use any of the social features anymore lol.

GREAT JOB GUYS!


You could change the email associated with your Oculus account if you want to link that FB account, or you could create a new FB account with the same email as your Oculus account--the advantage there is you can keep that FB account just for your VR activity and not fill it up with personal information and real-life friends if you want to keep your VR activity separate from your regular FB account.

DK2, CV1, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3.


Try my game: Cyclops Island Demo

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
This is all a bit pointless when you think about it. It doesn't even make it safer to use online if you can just create a dummy account. I hope this will not stop me playing games I have already purchased to play online because I'm not creating any social media accounts linked to my email. I created an Oculus account and that's as far as it goes with me. I don't see why I have to mess about creating these other accounts now.

kevinw729
Honored Visionary
We have seen OculusVR relent and change policy under the optic of VR community censure - I think its time the community once again gathered together and voiced (coherently) their unhappiness with this move and demand reverting back to the previous structure. We know that a number of the once passionate executives have departed the operation this year, but we need to see sensible resistance to this move, or we could see a positive Quest reception stifled before it has got off the ground. 
https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

OmegaM4N
Expert Trustee
^^^Yeap, they community did a good job on the whole Oculus CV1 DRM store debacle back in 2016 so it may be time for the community to flex their collective muscles once again.
CV1/Vive-knuckles)/Dell Vr Visor/Go/Quest II/ PSVR.