Today Oculus is starting to roll out the v30 update to Quest headsets, which brings multitasking, mic switching, and new accessibility options. The update also adds the wireless PC VR streaming feature, Air Link, to the original Quest.
Oculus announced the v30 update today, the latest in a series of patches which have aggressively improved the standalone Quest headset.
As with prior updates, v30 will roll out slowly to Quest and Quest 2 users, likely over the course of a week or more, but you can check for an update manually to see if it’s available to you. Here’s how:
How to Update Quest and Quest 2
- In your headset, bring up the Quest menu by pressing the Oculus button on your right controller. Find the Settings section (gear icon).
- On the left of the Settings section select ‘About’ at the bottom of the list
- Look next to the ‘Software Update’ label to see if a new version is available
- If no new version is available, try restarting your headset and checking again
App Multitasking on Quest
In an effort to make Quest more useful for productivity, Oculus is adding a multitasking feature for 2D apps.
Similar to the Oculus browser, users can have up to three ‘screens’ in front of them, each with different 2D apps. While the selection of 2D apps on Quest is limited to a handful of Oculus-specific apps like Explore, Store, Oculus TV, Scoreboards, and others, this multitasking functionality would be even more useful if Oculus ever opens up the headset to 2D Android apps.
Once the multitasking feature reaches your headset, for now you’ll find it under the Experimental Features section of the Settings panel. Once enabled, you can drag-and-drop 2D apps to open them side-by-side.
Mic Switching Between Party & App Chat
The v30 update to Quest will give you more control over your mic, allowing you to switch between party chat and app chat.
As it stands right now, if you’re in a system-level Oculus party chat with friends, you won’t be able to communicate with players inside of a game which uses its own in-game voice-chat. The only way to do so is to drop out of your party.
v30 will make it easy to switch back and forth between party chat and app chat without leaving and rejoining the party. This will also make it easier for players joining the same app to transition from party chat to app chat (to take advantage of spatial voice audio, for instance).
Air Link Comes to Oculus Quest
Air Link is a wireless version of the Oculus Link feature which lets you plug your Quest headset into a capable computer to play PC VR games. The feature first debuted in the v28 update, but it was restricted to Quest 2. v30 now brings Air Link to the original Oculus Quest as well.
The feature is still experimental and takes quite a few steps to enable; check out our full Air Link setup guide here, including tips on the ideal networking setup to ensure maximum performance.
Color-blind & Height Accessibility Options
The v30 Quest update is also adding accessibility options, and gathering them in a new Accessibility section in the Settings panel.
In addition to the existing ability to change text size, v30 adds system-wide color-blind options to help people with Deuteranomaly (green-red), Protanomaly (red-green), and Tritanomaly (blue-yellow) color-blindness.
v30 also introduces a ‘Raise View’ feature (which will be in Experimental Features when available), which allows you to raise your viewing height by 16 inches (0.4 meters). The idea is to allow games to be played at a standing height even when players are seated. Oculus says the function can be disabled by applications (likely to prevent unintended gameplay where height is concerned).
