Distribute and grow

Add users to a release channel

Updated: Oct 1, 2025

Developers can use different release channels to test new features with specific audiences, or for pre-release testing.

Public release channels are always discoverable by users who purchased your app, who can self-subscribe to the channel. You can use this for public betas of your app.

Invite-only release channels are only discoverable by users who receive email invites, or access an invite URL. Use this feature for pre-release tests, or when you want to be selective about who is testing your app.

If a user has access to multiple release channels, they can change the active channel by visiting the applications’ “Settings” page in-headset, or via the version dropdown in the application’s Meta Quest Store page out-of-headset.

Public release channels

You can use public opt-in channels to release public betas of your app for anyone who has purchased your app. Users must be at least 13 years of age to use public channels.

To make a release channel public:

When you create a new release channel, select the Public option in Channel Access.

For a channel you have already created, or a predefined channel, edit the channel by clicking the channel name to display its page. Select the Channel Settings tab and select Public in Channel Access.

Limitations

Keep the following limitations in mind when using public release channels:

Users can only leave reviews if they are on the public release channel. Users on other channels will not be able to leave app reviews.

Public channels are only visible to users who already have access to your application. For example, if your app is not yet published, uploading a build to a public release channel will not make it public to all users.

Private release channels

To distribute your release channel builds to a select group of users, you must first invite the users to a private release channel by email or URL invite.

Users must be at least 18 years of age to be invited to private channels. If the user resides in South Korea, your app must have a non-mature GRAC rating.

To make a release channel private:

When you create a new release channel, select the Private option in Channel Access.

Users receive updated builds as long as they remain a member of that channel. Users will no longer receive app updates to the channel when they are removed from the channel or when the channel is deleted.

Note

Users invited to a private channel will have access to public channels in your application as well. For instance, if you are doing pre-release testing for your application via private release channels, you may want to remove all users from that private release channel before you launch, or else those users will have access to your public launch builds.

Email invite users

Go to the Meta Horizon Developer Dashboard.

Select your app.

In the left-side navigation, click Distribution > Release Channels.

A list of release channels appears.

In the Users column of the desired release channel, click the number.

If there are any users, a list of users appears. If there aren’t any users, the page states, “No users”.

Click Email Invite Users and enter the email addresses of the users you want to invite to this channel. Enter up to 200 email addresses separated by commas.

Read the consent and select the I agree checkbox.

Click Send Invite.

The system then sends email invitations to each user you have invited.

Invite users via URL

In addition to email invites, which are always enabled, the Release Channel URL feature lets you easily share an invite URL with your audience. The feature also allows you to choose between individual or bulk approving/denying each person who tries join the release channel to access your build.

When users click on the URL, they will be taken to a page with details populated from your app submission metadata (app name, description, and header image). Users can join or request to join the channel depending on the join mode you set.

How to set up an invite URL:

Go to the Meta Horizon Developer Dashboard.

Select your app.

In the left-side navigation, click Distribution > Release Channels.

A list of release channels appears.

In the Name column, click the channel name.

Click the Channel Settings tab.

In the Channel Invite section, select the box to Grant access to users by URL.

The system will then generate a link. Using the buttons to the right of the link, you can copy the link or change it. The header app image on the URL page and app description will be used from the one uploaded to your App Submission -> App Metadata. You do not have to submit the app to save the image or app description.

Select your approval choice:

Automatic approval: Users with this URL will be automatically added to the release channel up to the max limit.

Manual Approval: Users with this URL will need admin approval before being added to this release channel. Org members with the Manage Release Channels permission for the app will be emailed when a user requests to join. Org admins have this permission by default. Users will be emailed when you approve their request.

The Channel User Limit is set to 200 by default. After the limit is reached, non-members will be unable to access the release channel URL page. Test users created on your team are excluded from this user limit.

Click Save Changes in the bottom right corner.

The invite URL page will be disabled 90 days after your latest build upload date to the given channel, so you will need to upload a new version to the release channel in order to re-enable the URL invite page for new users.

You can also disable the channel invite link at any time by unchecking Grant access to users by URL. This will 404 the invite URL page and prevent users from joining by URL. You can re-enable the same invite URL at any time by re-checking the checkbox and saving changes.

You can change the invite URL at any time by clicking Change URL and saving changes.

Note

Changing the URL will break any previously shared invite URLs.

You may remove or block users from the release channel, which will prevent users from receiving future builds uploaded to this channel. Users that are removed can be re-added using the invite URL. Users that are blocked cannot be re-added. You can unblock users from joining at any time.

You can manage the release channel’s users in the Users tab:

Joined lists the users who have access to the build uploaded to the channel.

Invited lists the users who have not yet accepted your email invitation.

Pending Approval lists the users who have requested to join the channel by URL and are awaiting your approval.

Blocked lists the users who you have removed and prevented from re-joining the channel. You can unblock the user from joining at anytime.

Get playtesting feedback from users added to release channels

Users in release channels other than “Production (Store)” can submit playtesting feedback in-headset. Playtesting feedback may include screen captures, recordings, and text that can provide you with contextual information which you can use to improve your app’s user experience.

To view the feedback your app’s users have submitted, visit the Developer Dashboard and click on the Playtesting Feedback page within the App Manager.

We recommend sharing these best practices with your release channel audience to help them submit consistent feedback that’s valuable and actionable for your team.

Users with multiple release channels

Users get the highest build version available to them by default. For example, say a user has purchased your app and is part of the following channels:

Alpha: build 55

Beta: build 67

Production: build 44

This user would receive build 67, as that is the highest build version. They can override this default by visiting the applications’ “Settings” page in-headset, or via the version dropdown in the application’s Meta Quest Store page out-of-headset.

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