How To Install Sidequest On Oculus Quest

One of the virtually discussed themes in the VR communities nowadays is the Oculus Quest content curation. Co-ordinate to many people (like me), Oculus is correct in preventing crappy apps to enter and ataxia the Quest Shop, simply its content curation is beingness too strict and it'southward preventing likewise practiced apps from being published (I've detailed all the situation in this separate post). Merely at that place is something that comes to the rescue of indie devs in all of this: SideQuest.

SideQuest is a tool that allow you lot install and uninstall unapproved apps on your Quest easily, and can be also be used to move your Oculus Go apps to your Quest. Started as a tool created only to brand the job of developers easier, information technology has at present evolved as a parallel distribution system for Oculus Quest apps. Fifty-fifty developers behind pop apps like VRidge or AltspaceVR are currently using SideQuest to permit people enjoy their applications fifty-fifty before having Facebook's approval.

But how does SideQuest work? Let me show you. Equally I did on my post nigh how to get started with Oculus Quest development in Unity, I've prepared for yous both a video and textual tutorial about it. Aren't I absurd? (If your answer is yes, sustain my hard work on Patreon!)

Video Tutorial: How to install and uninstall unapproved apps on Oculus Quest using SideQuest

I've heard you like video tutorials, so I prepared a Youtube video where I show you:

How to download and install SideQuest;
How to use it to install apps from online repositories;
How to use information technology to install apps (APKs) from your local difficult drive;
How to employ it to install Oculus Go or Gear VR's apps on your Quest;
How to use it to uninstall applications;
How to launch the sideloaded apps.

Take a squeamish time watching it 🙂

Textual Tutorial: How to install and uninstall unapproved apps on Oculus Quest using SideQuest

For the nerds like me that yet adopt textual tutorials, hither you are some instructions in written form.

How to download and install SideQuest

SideQuest is an opensource projection and can be downloaded from its GitHub page. Y'all have to await at the latest releases page and pick the one that near suits you depending on your operating system (information technology can work on Windows, Linux, and Mac).

On Windows, once yous accept downloaded the executable, yous take to launch it. It will be a self-extracting archive, and then yous have just to specify the location on the disk where you want to install it and and then click Extract. Subsequently the unzipping takes place, open that directory and launch SideQuest.exe.

How to configure your Quest for sideloading

When you will open SideQuest, y'all will find an interface like this one

The typical UI of SideQuest. On the left side, you have the main carte du jour of the app. Yous have likewise some useful functionalities on the upper right corner

The steps that you lot take to perform to configure your device for sideloading are:

Click on the "Setup" push in the lesser left corner of the application.
On the main panel of the app, you will meet a set up of instructions that will guide yous in setting your Quest in developer style and connect it to your PC. If your Quest is not in programmer mode even so, follow the first 4 points shown past the application (if you lot desire, I've already detailed the whole process in my post nigh how to go started with Oculus Quest evolution in Unity);
Make sure that your Quest is connected to your PC via a USB cable;
Follow the fifth indicate of the setup instructions and install on the Quest the SideQuest launcher app (and also the Surface area app, if yous wish… but it is not necessary).

How to use it to install apps from online repositories

Wait at the left side of the app: y'all volition run into some colored buttons with captions that say "NSFW", "VR Apps" and "VR Games". These are the three standard online repositories associated with SideQuest. An online repository is an online place in the cloud where someone has uploaded some applications that yous can download and install on your Quest through SideQuest. Consider them every bit unofficial stores of Quest applications.

If y'all click on the Repos button in the left toolbar, you can access the list of repositories associated with your installation of SideQuest. In this carte du jour, you can add yours or remove some existing ones that you don't similar.

To me it happened that at startup, I couldn't come across the standard repositories associated with the app, then I had to add them manually. If you lot are in my same situation, here you are the link to the standard online repos:

http://showmewhatyougot.x10host.com/nsfw/
http://showmewhatyougot.x10host.com/vr-apps/
http://showmewhatyougot.x10host.com/vr-games/

In one case you lot have configured the repositories as you wish, this is how you install an application from them:

Click on one of the repo buttons on the left toolbar (e.g. "VR Games");
You will see the list of applications bachelor in that repository;
Choice the i that y'all wish to install (e.thou. "Tuscany") and press the related "More than" cardinal;
Y'all will run into the details page of the app. Click on "install" to install it and "uninstall" to uninstall it (if it is already installed).

Easy peasy, isn't it?

sidequest repositories — UI of SideQuest, with highlighted the buttons to manage repos and install applications

How to utilize it to install apps (APKs) from your local difficult drive

That'southward even easier. If you have an APK file and you want to install it on your Quest, just elevate and drop it from your File Explorer to your SideQuest window. It will be installed automatically!

How to use it to uninstall applications

With your Oculus Quest connected to your PC, hit the "Currently Installed Apps" button in the summit bar of the SideQuest window. You will see the listing of all the applications currently installed on the device.

For each entry, yous will be have three buttons that will permit you:

Backup the related APK on your PC (this will exist useful in a while);
Clear all app data;
Uninstall the application.

If you hit the "Uninstall app" push button, the magic will happen and you volition be able to uninstall the application. This may seem something non that useful, but actually uninstalling a sideloaded app may be a pain, and would require some technical skills using adb via command line… so the fact that you lot can practise that by just pressing a push is astonishing!

SideQuest app list — List of all apps installed on the device, with buttons to manage them. The arrow points at the "Currently Installed Apps" button that has to be clicked to actuate this view

How to use it to install Oculus Become or Gear VR's apps on your Quest

Oculus doesn't permit you play your Oculus Go (or Gear VR)'s apps on your Quest, just many of them may actually piece of work running on it. On Reddit there is a long list of verified apps that work this way (here the direct link to the Gdoc document containing the list).

All you demand to practice to play some Go games on your Quest is getting the APK of the application and and so drag and drop it on SideQuest to install it on the Quest. Only… how to get the APK of an Oculus Go app?

There are ii ways. The start one is…

I guess you got it.

The second one is extracting the APK of the game from your Oculus Become (or from the Go of some friend of yours). To do that, disconnect your Oculus Quest then connect the Oculus Become to your PC (and and then launch SideQuest if it wasn't launched). So:

Striking the "Currently Installed Apps" button in the peak bar of SideQuest. This will show you the list of applications installed on the Go;
Search in the list the awarding that you desire to port to the Quest;
Click the "Fill-in APK file" next to it. This will copy the APK from the Oculus Go to a special folder on your hard drive;
Click the Settings push in the meridian menu of SideQuest. It is next to the "Currently Installed Apps" button;
Locate the "Open APK Backup Folder" in the "SideQuest Stuff" section and click it;
You should see a File Manager window popping upwardly, showing you the APK files that yous have backed up from the Get;
At present that you have the APKs, you tin connect the Quest and utilise SideQuest to install them using the method seen above (drag and drop).

SideQuest extract apk — How to extract an APK from your Oculus Become using SideQuest. This image shows y'all the buttons to printing after you have backed up the APKs to your hard drive (steps four-5 of the above list)

Notice that non all the Go apps extracted this way work on the Quest. So I propose you to have a look at the document linked above to run into which ones will run correctly and which ones will have troubles.

How to launch the sideloaded apps.

That's incredibly simple. Put on your Oculus Quest, so select Library -> Unknown Sources. In that location y'all will find all the apps that you take sideloaded. Select them to play your games!

Before, I have also made you sideload a SideQuest Launcher. If you look in the Unknown Sources listing, you volition detect an app called SideQuest. If you launch it, you will access the SideQuest launcher, that volition let you see all the apps installed on your device in a more beautiful way (all sideloaded apps will take a name, an icon, etc…), run across the features of your device and modify SideQuest settings. I take to say that honestly, the Launcher doesn't work on my device and I take to reboot it if I launch an app through information technology. Only if it works on your Quest, and so it'south really a nice app to continue sideloaded apps organized.

Information technology's lovely to run sideloaded apps… thank you to SideQuest, I have been able to run again the Tuscany Demo on my Oculus Quest… ah, so many memories of my Oculus DK 2 times and of all the tests for my previous full body VR startup made inside that demo…

OMG Tuscany on Quest…

I hope this tutorial has been useful for y'all all, and if information technology is the case, please like information technology, share it, subscribe to my newsletter, and feel gratuitous to ask me whatever question you want on my social media channels!

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