Meta Terminates Oculus Rift Chat Feature
Meta has ended the chat support for Oculus Rift. This could portend good tidings for Meta Quest 2.
The chat feature in the Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S is soon coming to an end, even in the PC app, so users with these headsets will no longer be able to chat with their Oculus friends.
A Reddit user Damontoo received an email to the effect and posted it on the Oculus Reddit. From October 5th, users will only be able to chat with other virtual reality users through Meta Quest 1, Meta Quest 2, and the Meta Quest app.
It is no surprise that Meta is doing away with the old chat system in these headsets. Last year, the company took Oculus Rift S off the market, thereby doing away with the Rift line of PC VR headsets. It appears that Meta has irrevocably embarked on a future that focuses on standalone virtual reality headsets.
The Rift chat feature might also have been removed due to the outdated Rift interface one encounters when one connects to a PC through Quest Link. The Meta PC VR app is outdated and needs to be reworked from the ground up for better integration with Quest software.
In September 2020, the company unveiled a native PC-VR interface. The Oculus blog talks of a unified system experience that enables users to see both the Quest and Rift apps side-by-side and access the exclusive Quest features such as Messenger chat and hand tracking when using PC VR. The integration was announced last year although the company is yet to show any progress in this so far.
The disabling of chat support in Oculus Rift (S) could also mean that the native PC VR software is being done away with. The current PC VR app may be scrapped and replaced with a more streamlined version.
Quest Pro Could Add a PC VR Reboot
However, we are not seeing the last of Meta and the PC VR medium. The company’s upcoming Meta Quest Pro headset will be launching in October and will likely be better optimized for PC VR functionality than the Quest 2 headset as a result of its workplace and productivity focus.
Reports state that the new headset will provide a near-lossless and latency-free data transfer with cable usage.
There are also rumors of a new Air Link dongle that will simplify PC VR streaming and make it more attractive for users and roping more onboard Meta’s PC VR ecosystem.
The accessory and the native PC VR interface would enable Meta to overcome some of the major challenges to the use of PC VR in Meta Quest’s VR headsets.
https://virtualrealitytimes.com/2022/09/08/meta-terminates-oculus-rift-chat-feature/https://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Oculus-Rift-600x320.pnghttps://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Oculus-Rift-150x90.pngTechnologyMeta has ended the chat support for Oculus Rift. This could portend good tidings for Meta Quest 2. The chat feature in the Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S is soon coming to an end, even in the PC app, so users with these headsets will no longer be able...Rob GrantRob Grant[email protected]AuthorVirtual Reality Times - Metaverse & VR