The current Meta Quest Store is criticized and praised for its
highly-curated approach. This approach is a great way to avoid the “shovelware” flood that some stores experience, while also limiting the reach of developers who have new, interesting, and innovative ideas. Meta’s curators may not like them, but the consumers might. App Lab is a platform that offers distribution and monetization but does not list apps. Potential customers can only find them through a direct URL link or by searching for the exact app name and scrolling down, and are given a warning when installing them.
Many of the most popular Quest Store apps today started off as App Lab apps, including Gorilla Tag, the top played app on the platform.console-likeMeta today announced the eventual death of App Lab, and this will come in two phases.
The first phase, coming soon, will see an App Lab tab added to the store interface, as seen in the image above. Quest users will be able to browse App Lab applications without needing an exact URL or search term. Meta says store apps will still need to meet “basic technical, content and privacy requirements”, but will no longer be rejected based on subjective taste or quality. Meta says store apps will still need to meet “basic technical, content, and privacy requirements”, but will no longer be rejected based on a subjective taste or quality basis.
This news comes as Meta also
Oculus ‘App Lab’: Quest Platform Gets Non-Store App Distribution
Developers can now distribute Oculus Quest apps without going through full store approval or requiring sideloading. Oculus Quest is a semi-closed console-like platform. The Oculus Store was previously the only official way to distribute apps. Owners can however declare themselves developers to enable sideloading, with games & experiments available from 3rd
it’s rebranding the Meta Quest OS to Meta Horizon OS and the Meta Quest Store to Meta Horizon Store, bringing the platform to third-party headset makers starting with ASUS and Lenovo.
Horizon Store’s more open approach will come as a major relief for independent XR developers currently struggling to get reach for their apps, and help Meta live up to its lofty claims of being the “open alternative” to Apple Vision. The Horizon Store’s more open approach will be a relief for independent XR developers who are currently struggling to get their apps seen. It will also help Meta live up to its lofty claims of being the “open alternative” of Apple Vision.