Next month, we are rolling out two of the most requested features from our VR community: Multi-User accounts, the ability for multiple accounts to log into a single headset; and App Sharing, the ability to share apps with others on the shared device.
With these features, the primary account holder will be able to add secondary accounts to their device and share the apps they purchase with these secondary accounts. Not only will this enable safe sharing, but game progress and achievements will be personalized and saved separately for each account.
We anticipate that these features will help grow the VR community, promote your apps, and help prevent piracy. Additionally, unique accounts and effective sharing mechanisms increase household usage, driving better engagement for the developer long term.
We'll initially launch these features on Quest 2 as experimental and then later roll out to all Quest users. To start, a primary account holder can add up to three secondary accounts and enable App Sharing on a single device. We expect an increasing number of households to have multiple Quest devices, so the App Sharing feature will later expand to allow a primary account holder to share their purchases across three devices. As we receive consumer and developer feedback, we may adjust the number of devices and secondary accounts as necessary.
If you have an app in the Oculus Quest store today, your app will automatically be opted in to the App Sharing feature starting February 13, 2021. If your app is required to opt out for contractual or other reasons, you will need to disable App Sharing by
February 12, 2021 by visiting your Org Manager page
here. Select the app you want to opt-out, navigate to the “Settings” tab and choose “App Sharing.” Existing Rift, Go, and Gear apps are not affected by this new policy.
Starting February 13, 2021, all new Rift or Quest apps submitted to the Oculus platform will need to support App Sharing as further described in our updated
App Policies.
Multi-User and App Sharing can help you reach more VR users, expand your community, and promote your apps. To ensure these features are used as intended, we’ve established the following protections. These may change in the future as we incorporate feedback and suggestions from our community.
Additional Protections In Place
To use Multi-User and App Sharing, the primary account holder and the secondary accounts must each log in to the shared device using their own Facebook accounts.
Secondary account holders can only launch the primary owner’s eligible shared app entitlements on the shared device. If the secondary account holder purchases their own device or already has their own device, they won't be able to access the primary owner’s shared apps on their new headset.
Only the secondary accounts on the shared device may use the primary user’s app entitlements, including certain in-app purchases or DLC if permitted.
Secondary account holders may purchase their own apps and content on the shared device, but cannot share these apps with the primary account holder or other secondary accounts.
An Oculus user who enables App Sharing can log in to multiple devices simultaneously but cannot run the same app with their account on more than one device at a time. Different accounts can run the shared app simultaneously, subject to the device limitation mentioned above.
The primary user cannot be changed without a factory reset. A primary user can add secondary accounts, but secondary accounts cannot add other accounts.
We look forward to your input and feedback.