You’ll soon be able to use your Quest headset without the need for a Facebook account.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg today announced Meta accounts, a new way to log into your Meta Quest. This new login option offers additional flexibility by allowing you access to your headset without the need for a Facebook account, offering more control over your metaverse experience.

“You won’t need a Facebook account to log into Quest starting next month. We’re rolling out new Meta accounts that you can use with our VR headsets instead,” said Zuckerberg in a Facebook post. “This will give everyone more choice about how you show up in the metaverse.”

Meta accounts offer the same functionality as Facebook and Oculus, allowing you to manage your Quest headset as well as download new games and apps from the Meta Store. Of course, if you don’t have any issues using your Facebook account, you’re more than welcome to continue using that method. You can even use your Instagram account to log into your headset.

Once you’re logged in, Meta accounts will offer you a number of ways to connect with people while in-world:

• You can choose to access connected experiences with your Facebook and Instagram account, like finding Instagram followers to play games with or using Messenger to chat with your friends. This can be done a few ways:
  • If you’re a new Meta VR user, you can choose to set up your Meta account using Facebook or Instagram.
  • If you’re an existing Meta VR user, you can set up your Meta account using Facebook. If you’d like to enable connected experiences in VR with your Instagram account, you can do so in the Accounts Center—your one-stop shop to manage accounts and connected experiences (like syncing your various profiles) across Meta technologies. You’ll be able to find Accounts Center in Settings in the Oculus mobile app, on our website, and in-headset. 
  • If you set up your Meta account with an email address, you can enable these connected experiences with Facebook and Instagram at any time in the Accounts Center. 
  • You can also head over to the Help Center if you have other questions.
• If you previously merged your Oculus account with your Facebook account, you can choose to remove your Facebook account during the setup process. This keeps your Facebook account separate from your VR use.

Through this process, you can log into any of your VR devices such as your Quest, Go, and Rift, where you can view and manage your purchased apps all in a single easy-to-navigate place.

There are some other changes in the pipeline as well. For example, Meta will be shifting your Oculus profile to a new Meta Horizon profile. Here you’ll be able to customize your username, your avatar, and other information. This unified profile will also represent your social presence in VR as well as other places that you would use your Meta Horizon profile, like the web.

There are also some new privacy controls that let you control exactly who is able to interact with you in VR as you build your own VR community. 

Through the privacy control update you’ll find a menu with three privacy options to choose from:

• Open to Everyone
• Friends and Family
• Solo

You also have the option to set your Meta Horizon profile to private, which allows you to review and approve follower/friend requests. When in private mode, only your followers can see who you follow and who follows you. Non-followers will still be able to view your profile picture, avatar, username, display name, follower count, and the number of people you follow, and people can still search for your name or username and send you follow requests.

For users between the ages of 13 and 17, their Meta Horizon profiles will be set to private by default. Meta also plans on extending all Meta account functionalities to other Meta devices moving forward.

If you’re new to the Quest VR headset or you recently merged your Oculus account with your Facebook account, you’ll need to create a Meta account and an accompanying Meta Horizon profile beginning August 2022. If you’ve been logging into your Quest headset with your Oculus account, you can continue to do so until January 1, 2023, at which point you will need to create a Meta account and Meta Horizon profile to continue using your Meta Quest or any Meta VR device.

Zuckerberg knows that access into the metaverse needs to be as frictionless as possible in order for it to meet the expectations and goals he envisions. And it all starts with the signup process.

Image Credit: Meta