Facebook continuously adds features to their latest headset, and Quest 2 owners should know about them.
Oculus Link & Air Link
This is by far my favorite addition and definitely many others, especially considering the fact that at the time of publishing this article, the Oculus Quest 2 currently takes up 30% of the total VR headset users in the Steam library. Quest 1 and 2 users can now play any game on the steam library through wireless connection or using a Type-C data transfer cable.
Prepare to have your mind blown by the amount of amazing content that's been just out of your reach until now.
Hand Tracking
This feature was first introduced back in 2019 for the Oculus Quest 1. Hand tracking provides users/developers an option to navigate and play games without the use of controllers.
There's currently only a few hand-tracking games available in the Oculus marketplace, but they're still a lot of fun to play and experience the breakthrough technology. Everyday tasks like opening up your web browser and using YouTube are now far more breezy.
120Hz Refresh Rate
The release refresh rate of the Quest 1 and 2 was 72Hz. Refresh rate, or Hz, is how many times per second an image can be displayed on your screen. The higher the number, the more fluid and life-like the motions will feel. Not only does the experience look better, but higher refresh rate will lead to less VR motion sickness; this provides developers more room to work with when it comes to fast paced games.
Fitness Tracking
Oculus released 'Oculus Move' with their v23 update which is a very important update towards bringing VR into the mainstream.
If you've ever used or seen how a FitBit or Apple Watch operates, then it's a very similar experience. Virtual reality games tend to be a good exercise and it's nice to now see how much physical demand they're having.
Voice Commands
The easiest way to open or search for VR apps came with the introduction of voice commands. Voice control allows the user to perform a wide array of commands/actions including: application launching, web browsing, making a screenshot, menu navigation, volume increase/decrease, and you're even able to ask which friends of yours are currently online.
A 'wake word' was also added to the Quest 2 headset which sounds really awesome, but unfortunately the phrase they chose was "Hey Facebook"....... I know. If you can get past having to say that phrase all the time and enjoy this feature you'll find it under 'Experimental'
Smartphone Notifications Inside the Headset
YET ANOTHER feature to help make VR a household item is the addition of the ability to get smartphone notifications to display on your headset. You can almost live your life entirely in VR if you think about it. You can order food, do your job (if it's done on a computer), watch movies, exercise, and hang out with friends... the metaverse is coming sooner than we think!
App Lab
Since the Quest 1 launched, their biggest turn-off for newcomers was the lack of a virtual reality game library. Though they've been working on adding new titles weekly, it's not anywhere near enough to compete with Valve's Steam VR library.
To remedy this, the Oculus App Lab allows anyone to create and publish their own apps/games on their secondary app store. What is also great is there isn't a requirement to get approval from Facebook before publishing so there is much room for potentially amazing games.
Passthrough Background
There's no doubt that the Oculus Quest 2 has the potential to be the perfect party toy to bring over to a friend or family's house. In the before-fore time, Quest users always had to take off their headset or tilt their head to the ceiling to be able to see and speak to people around them. Well now this is a thing of the past.
Oculus developed a new feature which allows users to see their 'Passthrough View' by simply double tapping the side of their headset.
This will turn your vision from whatever you're doing inside the headset into what the exterior cameras see.
Now you can easily tap and see your surroundings to reset your position.
Bluetooth Keyboard + Mouse Support
(This counts as two lol)
Yet another big move to help VR move to the mainstream is a feature allowing users to add their physical keyboard and mouse into their virtual space. Users can now more easily use their Oculus Quest 2 headset for productivity or browsing without having to blindly feel around for their desktop peripherals.
This feature can be found in their settings under "Experiemental" where you'll see a "Bluetooth Pair" button. It's a very simple setup process that is sure to be a standard feature for future VR headsets.