You can now free the Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook's grip — but there's a catch

You can now costless the Oculus Quest two from Facebook's grip — simply there'southward a catch

(Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

The Oculus Quest ii is a brilliantly versatile bit of hardware that deservedly sits at the top of our list of the best VR headsets you lot can buy right now. But there's a grab: you lot accept to have a Facebook account to use it.

However, there's now a workaround that can free upwardly the Quest two from Facebook's clutches, albeit with a few drawbacks. Facebook haters could try Oculess, a side-loadable tool that promises to sever the link betwixt the social network and Oculus Quest in one case and for all.

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As spotted by UploadVR, once Oculess is sideloaded, your Facebook account will be unlinked, allowing you to savor your VR space on your ain terms.

Of course, this does have its drawbacks, including no farther software updates from Facebook, no Oculus Store and the likely loss of access to any software you've already bought from it (the developer mentions entitlement errors in Virtual Desktop in the notes). Both Oculus Television and the Oculus browser volition also stop to office, but the latter tin can exist replaced with something similar Firefox Reality, and there are enough of other apps and games gear up to sideload, also.

That may sound like a few too many drawbacks. Equally someone who barely uses Facebook myself, I tin can't run across me jumping through hoops to disentangle my Quest ii, especially every bit I've already bought a decent number of games.

But for anyone who is tempted to attempt this, mayhap over concerns virtually the company's questionable mental attitude to privacy, they're probably better off doing so sooner rather than later. Facebook has a addiction of taking on developers who subvert the intended apply, as Louis Barclay plant when he received both a ban and a terminate-and-desist alphabetic character for creating a Chrome extension allowing people to unfollow everything on the social network with a single click.

Facebook linked or non, the Oculus Quest 2 is however a a VR headset well worth considering. It has an impressive and growing library of downloadable VR experiences, but is also happy to run PC games similar One-half Life Alyx via cable, or fifty-fifty over WiFi — and all for $299. Check out our guide on where to buy Oculus Quest 2 for the latest updates.

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Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional mag too. When not weighing upwardly the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, yous'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.