Facebook removed the ability to livestream your Quest directly to your Facebook profile in the v30 update of the Quest system software.
Facebook confirmed to UploadVR that the feature is no longer available as of v30. The feature allowed you to stream a video feed of your Quest headset activity directly to your profile on Facebook, which friends and family could interact with like any other live Facebook stream. The feature also supported the Quest microphone, allowing you to livestream the headset’s mic feed in the video feed. Quest users could also read and respond to comments on the livestream while in VR via an overlay.
In a statement to UploadVR, Facebook confirmed the feature had been removed and said it is “always working to evolve and improve the ways for people to create and share content from Quest headsets.” The company recently updated its tools for local broadcast. Here’s the rest of the statement from Facebook:
We heard from the community that casting to friends & family who are in the same place was the most important form of sharing their VR experience, and was more commonly used than livestreaming to a broader/ public audience. That’s why we’re doubling down on improving our casting tools that help people share in new ways. For instance, we recently rolled out the Live Overlay feature that lets people superimpose themselves over a view of what they’re seeing in VR while casting.
In addition, people can still stream from Quest to any social site or other destination using our Cast-to-Web feature, which mirrors your VR view to your computer, paired with streaming software. This is a method we expect to be especially useful for content creators and streamers.
Stay tuned for more improvements to our casting and sharing features in the coming months.
Besides removing the livestreaming feature, the Quest v30 update added support for microphone swapping between party chat and game chat, alongside multitasking support as part of the Infinite Office feature set.
