Facebook adds up a new requirements for Oculus Sideloading

Facebook is adding up a new step to sideload the content on Oculus Quest standalone headset.

This step was first announced more than a year ago but it was enforced for the last 2 weeks. Facebook describes this as a ‘developer verification’.

For sideloading the applications to standalone Oculus headsets you always needed to enable Developer Mode. By enabling this developer mode for your account, you’re declaring yourself a VR developer and agreeing to the Oculus Developer Terms of Service.

Now, by October 8, Facebook will add a verification step requiring you to provide your phone number or payments card details.

This year Facebook promised to open up new options for non-store app distribution on Oculus Quest in early 2021.

Until then, as outlined in our guide to sideloading on Quest, signing up as a VR developer and using software like SideQuest can make it easy to do the following:

Install prerelease builds released by a developer, before the game is finished and/or released.
Install apps that are not available on the Oculus Store (either as they were rejected, have not yet applied for a store listing, or otherwise).
Use an alternate build of an approved Oculus Store application — alternate builds can offer additional content when sideloaded, which isn’t approved under the store guidelines.
Load custom content — certain games and apps may support custom content installation.
Install tools that offer new insight into how you’re using your Quest.