The in-VR SideQuest app can now be installed onto your Quest with fewer steps, directly from your PC or Android phone’s web browser over USB.
For context, there are two different ways to use SideQuest:
- The original SideQuest program for Windows/Mac/Linux, which launched just days after the original Oculus Quest in 2019 and lets you install apps to your connected Quest using your PC, as well as tweak advanced headset settings.
- The in-headset SideQuest app launched in 2022 which, once itself installed on your Quest via PC, lets you install apps from inside the headset, without the need for a PC.
Until now, installing the in-headset SideQuest app required downloading an installer to your PC, which then downloaded and installed the in-headset SideQuest app onto your connected Quest. But from today this installer is no longer needed. Instead, SideQuest is able to directly install its in-VR app through the web browser using a relatively new browser API called WebUSB to connect to the headset using WebADB, a browser implementation of the ADB tool.
You’ll still need to have your Quest in developer mode for this one-time installation step, but you can now do it directly in the web browser of almost any device, including a Chromebook or Android phone. What isn’t supported is iPhone, as Safari on iOS doesn’t support WebUSB.
The in-headset SideQuest app is also getting enhanced capabilities. It now lets you adjust all the advanced headset settings you could formerly only adjust on the PC app, such as toggling Guardian and the proximity sensor and adjusting rendering resolution, fixed foveated rendering, CPU and GPU levels, and video capture settings.
You can access the new SideQuest Web Installer here.
