Oculus Quest v29 update brings big features to more users

Oculus today announced its v29 software update, which includes new features for gaming and for the company's Infinite Office suite. In a lot of ways, this can be seen as a direct follow up to the big update Oculus launched in February, in large part because this is expanding on the Multi-User Accounts and App Sharing features that rolled out in February's update.

Specifically, Multi-User Accounts and App Sharing will be going live for owners of the original Quest. As we detailed back in February, Multi-User Accounts allows you to associate multiple Oculus accounts with a single headset, while App Sharing does what it says on the tin in that it allows you share certain games with all the accounts on a device.

They're pretty straightforward additions but they're big ones for households that share a single headset. Oculus has also added microphone capture when using the Quest's Casting to Web or Recording features, meaning that you can finally use your headset's built-in mic to provide commentary for your gameplay. On top of that, iOS users are getting a new feature called Live Overlay, which is a Casting and Recording feature that lets you use your phone's camera to essentially superimpose video of yourself over whatever you're viewing with your headset.

Oculus v29 also launches new features for Infinite Office, starting with in-headset iOS notifications. Android users will soon be able to see their phone notifications while using a Quest headset as well, but that functionality won't be launching with v29. A new Files App, which can be found in the app library, will let you browse and manage your locally-store files within VR. Infinite Office is also getting a Passthrough environment shortcut that lets you take a look at what's happening around you.

Last but definitely not of least importance is the fact that Oculus says it will begin testing ads within the Oculus App. It sounds like those ads will only advertise Oculus content – the idea being that it can be difficult for developers to get their product noticed with a growing number of apps and games on the Oculus store – but we're not sure Oculus fans will be too excited about that. While v29 isn't launching today, Oculus does say it will be rolling out gradually in the near future, so we'll keep an eye out for more.