Update January 31, 2023: The Oculus Rooms API will now be deprecated in March 2023 (originally January 2023). This post has been updated to reflect the most up-to-date information to help you prepare for these changes.
Starting in March 2023, the Oculus Rooms API will be deprecated and removed from the list of available Platform APIs for integration.
This deprecation won’t affect any apps currently listed in the Meta Quest Store or App Lab that use Rooms API, but unreleased apps shouldn’t use the Rooms API as it won’t be supported after deprecation. All apps created through the Developer Dashboard after the Rooms API has been deprecated will not have access to the Rooms API as well as Matchmaking, Peer-to-Peer Voice Chat, and Oculus P2P features, which leverage Oculus Rooms for functionality. Rooms API will continue functioning normally for all apps that have integrated the API prior to deprecation.
Developers can convert any existing Rooms integrations to the Group Presence API, which also integrates with Destinations. For multiplayer features like matchmaking, there are alternative services available from Photon, Epic, PlayFab, and Unity.
Why Deprecate the Oculus Rooms API?
Currently, the Oculus Rooms API has a series of known issues that either force a developer to work around them or can be solved by other solutions like the Group Presence APIs.
Among other known issues, the Rooms API doesn’t fit into the modern Group Presence APIs which can only be set by the developer. For example, the Oculus Rooms API allows both the app and the platform to apply changes to the list of users in the room. If the app places a user into the room, there is no guarantee that the user will still be in the room when the list of users is fetched.
Recommended Solutions for Oculus Rooms API Deprecation
You can achieve similar functionality of Oculus Rooms with the Group Presence API, along with Platform SDK multiplayer features like Invite to App, Destinations, Rosters, and more. To learn how to quickly integrate these multiplayer features into your app, check out our four-part blog and video series “Building Your Multiplayer VR Experience.” This series explores our SharedSpaces sample made in Unity and provides step-by-step guidance on how you can use multiplayer APIs with Unity and Photon to bring people together in VR. For tracking a persistent list of users, we recommend using third-party tools like Photon or Playfab.
To see an example of how other developers have used Platform SDK multiplayer features to enhance social interactions, check out our case study with Echo VR.
Platform SDK
Quest
Unity
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