Facebook is now launching Messenger on Oculus Quest and Quest 2 headphones and trust me, And I’m crowded.
Messenger will only be available to those who have already connected their Facebook accounts to their Quest or Quest 2 headphones, so those who have resisted merging their separate Oculus account are safe for now. But if you’re one of those people who bought an Oculus headset after the last one October, you probably already know that Facebook requires you to sign in to your account first– and order more data.
Adding Messenger to Oculus is completely contrary to the whole purpose of VR: immersion. Not only do I not want to read messages inside the headset, how exactly should someone reply in Messenger while wearing a Quest? Facebook said in its press release that users can write messages by typing them in VR, selecting something pre-written or using the voice-text function and that it did not provide any details beyond that. Typing with the controller stickstick has never been quick and convenient, not everyone can type without looking down at the keyboard, and the text-to-speech is not 100% accurate. It doesn’t always matter regional dialects or speech disabilities.
And, I mean, why would you want to chat with your friends on Messenger in VR when? VRChat there is? Thank God Facebook gives you the option to disconnect from Messenger on your Oculus headphones, which is the best – the biggest problem here is Facebook’s trend for data collection.
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Ask users Connecting your Oculus to their Facebook account means that social networks already have access your VR gaming habits, but Facebook collect Messenger data.
When Apple launched “nutrition nutrition labels“For the App Store last year, cracked a CVS-sized receipt on Facebook Messenger. First seen by 9to5Mac, it seems Facebook collects an absurd amount of data about its users, including: sensitive information for product customization, analysis and application functionality; financial information for third-party advertisers and a mysteriously labeled ‘other purpose’ category; and device ID data.
Probably, if you use Messenger in Oculus, Facebook will also collect data from there; According to Apple’s privacy label, Facebook collects data about users’ game content. When announced the company first would require Oculus users to log in to their Facebook accounts, confirmed that it would collect data on “relevant content” of users in “Oculus Activity” and that the data would be used to recommend Oculus events or VR applications.
Oculus is another way for the company to collect more data about its users, and adding Messenger to the VR platform gives the company more chances to do so. Combine all of this with Facebook abysmal privacy historic, and honestly, took all the joy of VR games with an Oculus headset.