Now you can free the Oculus Quest 2 from Fb’s grip — however there is a catch

The Oculus Quest 2 is brilliantly versatile hardware that is rightly at the top of our list of the best VR headsets you can buy right now. But there’s a catch: you need to have a Facebook account to use it.

However, there is now a workaround that can free the Quest 2 from the clutches of Facebook, albeit with some drawbacks. Facebook haters could try Oculess, a sideloadable tool that promises to sever the connection between the social network and Oculus Quest once and for all.

As UploadVR found, after sideloading your Facebook account will be disconnected from Oculess so you can enjoy your VR space on your own terms.

Of course, this also has disadvantages, including no further software updates from Facebook, no Oculus Store and the likely loss of access to software that has already been purchased (the developer mentions permission errors in Virtual Desktop in the notes). Both the Oculus TV and the Oculus browser will no longer work either, but the latter can be replaced with something like Firefox Reality, and there are plenty of other apps and games that can be downloaded from the site as well.

That may sound like a few too many disadvantages. As someone who barely uses Facebook myself, I can’t imagine jumping through hoops to untangle my Quest 2, especially since I’ve already bought a decent number of games.

But for anyone tempted to try, perhaps because of concerns about the company’s questionable stance on privacy, it is likely better to do so sooner rather than later. Facebook has a habit of hiring developers who undermine its intended purpose, as noted by Louis Barclay when he received both a ban and an omission statement to create a Chrome extension that would allow people to do anything on the social network with a single click to unfollow.

Facebook linked or not, the Oculus Quest 2 is still a VR headset worth considering. It has an impressive and growing library of downloadable VR experiences, but is also happy to run PC games like Half Life Alyx over cable or even WiFi – all for $ 299. Check out our guide to buying the Oculus Quest 2 for the latest updates.

Today’s best deals on Oculus Quest 2

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