Facebook is building a ‘new social layer’ for Oculus headsets

Facebook spent a large amount of time at its Oculus Connect 6 keynote detailing the new links between its VR headset and the company's core Facebook app.

"Starting late this year, we will begin to roll out a completely new social layer across the Oculus platform powered by Facebook," Oculus exec Megan Fitzgerald said onstage. "This is going to enable a lot of new ways to connect on the Facebook-on the Oculus platform."

Oculus users will soon be able to long in via their Facebook logins and gain access to more social features, including direct-posting to Facebook. Users will be able to message their Oculus friends inside the headset and on non-VR devices. They will also be able to create events and invite friends.

They want to build communities for VR on the scale of Facebook, which means integrating Facebook all over the Oculus eco-system! So Oculus will be Facebook-i-fied to the max, I guess. Facebook chat, events, and I guess many other things. pic.twitter.com/J7ygQ0g66C

- Andreas "BOLL" Aronsson (@BOLL7708) September 25, 2019

One new feature, called Destinations, will allow users to broadcast what they are doing inside games so that they can share with friends looking to play. The broadcasts will share deep links to the titles so you can click a button inside chat on your phone which will launch the game on your Quest so you just have to toss the headset on to play with friends. Cutting down on friction has been a major goal for Oculus and these deep links could be a major evolution for the system.

Logging into your Oculus device via a Facebook login is still optional, but it seems that Facebook is pushing more functionality that is only possible for users that connect their VR device to the app.