Developers can now distribute Oculus Quest applications without going through full store approval or requiring sideloading.
Oculus Quest is a platform similar to a semi-closed console. The Oculus Store was previously the only official way to distribute apps. Owners can, however, claim to be developers to enable sideloading, with games and experiments available on the third-party service SideQuest, which automates the USB sideloading process.
App Lab, available now, allows developers to upload applications to the Oculus platform and share them directly with users via a URL or key. Applications can be free or paid.
Clicking on the URL opens the list of applications on the Oculus smartphone app, where the user can purchase or install it on their Quest.
These apps don’t appear in the main Oculus store, but, once redeemed, they appear in your VR library and support automatic updates, as well as platform features like achievements and leaderboards. You do not need to declare yourself a developer to install an App Lab application and a PC is not required.
The approval of the Oculus Store is notoriously difficult to guarantee, which has left some rejected developers struggling to recover the investment they made in migrating to the mobile VR system.
The App Lab still requires basic Facebook approval, but the process is much shorter than for the store. Applications must be approved as long as they comply with the Oculus Content Guidelines and the Facebook Data Use Policy.
The App Lab does not replace SideQuest. In fact, SideQuest now supports App Lab URLs in place of the APK file, continuing its role as the de facto alternative app store for Oculus Quest. Since App Lab does not require a PC, these applications can be installed effectively from the SideQuest website using your phone’s browser.
Developers can submit applications to the App Lab on the Oculus Developer Dashboard.