Remove Mandatory Facebook Login!
Remove Mandatory Facebook login in order to accept friend requests and use the Oculus app. I have never had Facebook nor do i want it. I just want to play vr. I don’t want to have to have facebook to enjoy my 500$ Virtual Reality Headset with my friends.
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408 comments
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Steven Lamb commented
I got a Quest for my kids that are not old enough for Facebook. We can not enjoy our VR time together because of this.
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Carlos Burgos commented
This is a must. Stop forcing us to use your platform. We want a more open system.
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akvero
commented
we can feel a lot of frustration, anger and even hatred in these comments. it is quite understandable. with the change that was made at the end of 2019, some important features that were working fine have been disabled for people without a facebook account. they are currently unable to voice chat with friends outside of games that implement voice chat (not all do), and setting up multiplayer games is more or less cumbersome depending on the game.
for example: to play “drop dead: dual strike edition” with a friend, you have to launch a quick play at the same time and hope the game will match you with your friend. only when this has succeeded at least once will this friend appear in your (internal) friends list, and you can then invite them to play the next time (from within the game only). because of this, your friends list gets automatically populated with all players that the game matched you with, and it is not possible to remove people you don’t know. this is ridiculous and broken.
for more information on what works and what doesn’t, see this in-depth article (about the oculus quest): https://medium.com/@darkuni/quest-how-does-facebook-impact-quest-owners-12ef2782bd0c
it is understandable that facebook wants to integrate its social features more into the oculus platform. for people that have a facebook account, this is probably very convenient. i think it is a good thing that facebook gives this option to their users.
the problem comes from the fact that these important features are now only accessible if you have a facebook account. this is very unfortunate, as it punishes the user and actually cripples the device. this move diminishes the value of the platform, and drives away many potential new customers.
this is especially true for the oculus quest (which is a great device b.t.w.), as there is currently no way to install and use a separate application for voice chat that could be run alongside other applications, including the oculus home. because of this, to communicate with friends, you need to juggle with your phone or your computer while not seeing these devices (or trying to look at them through the nose gap), and have to drop your controllers each time you want to interact with them. this is pretty annoying.
we may argue that people should just create a facebook account and the problem would be solved for them. maybe this is what facebook is thinking? maybe they don’t see what the problem actually is? the problem is that there is no such thing as “just creating a facebook account”. having a facebook account means joining facebook, the social network, and this is anything but negligible. it has serious, critical side effects, that are undesirable to many people.
it is not that people without a facebook account don’t just want to create an account. it is that it’s important to them to *not* have a facebook account.
to facebook: please acknowledge that there are people that don’t want to have a facebook account. don’t force it on them. they are customers who already paid several hundreds of dollars. show that they are important to you. show that you listen to them and that you care. be inclusive. choice and freedom is good. leave all important features available to everyone, with or without a facebook account.
this is why it’s important that everyone votes for this issue, whether you have a facebook account or not.
here is an excellent article that dives deeper into this issue: https://medium.com/@darkuni/oculus-quest-forced-facebook-integration-no-big-deal-or-class-action-suit-16a06b418975
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Iwan
commented
I know Facebook is everywhere!! Its well annoying!
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unsatisfied Oculus owner
commented
I have no intention of using Facebook, and i do not appreciate this approach from Oculus. if i had of known this would happen i would have waited out for Valve's VR.
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Gary Johnson
commented
Totally agree! I've gone from loving this product to hating it within a moment. The moment I found out I couldn't play friends without a facebook account ffs. It either gets changed rapidly, or the device gets sold and I lose interest. Such a shame - fantastic product, ruined with tiny minded execution. Whoever made that decision should be ashamed of themselves!!
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Anonymous
commented
Eventually Your going to force people away by making them use Facebook to use your products
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Chris B.
commented
Totally on board with this. One of the biggest reasons I continue to play on any platform isn't the games or hardware, it's being able to have fun with some friends. We shouldn't need to all be on Facebook either. No reason there shouldn't be some internal Friend/Party system to Oculus. If I continue to basically have to jump through hoops (we've even resorted to calling each other on the phone while we're playing and muting everyone else) to group up and chat with just friends I don't expect I'll spend a lot more time using the Quest / Oculus. I'll also note that there's another request for basically this same thing called, 'Make it easier to play/chat with friends' so there's more than just the current votes for this one.
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John Simpson
commented
To add, the first thing you need to do with your Oculus rift/ rift S is INSTALL STEAM VR. The first thing I do the moment I put on the headset is load Steam VR. From there, my social interactions are either completely based on my Steam friends list, or completely random (joining random social rooms etc.).
Steam VR. It's what you want. It's what you need. But you all probably already figured that out and are switching to Steam because of this Facebook nonsense... and likely haven't said as much.
Oculus team, your users are moving to rival platforms. Every single customer that isn't logging in with Facebook... THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE DOING. Go ahead, count them. Guaranteed they're using Steam VR for their social interactions, perhaps you can see that from your end, the number of users with Steam VR loaded. You're losing out on a LARGE chunk of users because of this Facebook mistake.
I should know, I'm one of them.
Even if you make some backward attempt to lock us into the Occulus app in the future (hey it's Facebook, they're likely to try to demand it) , Users WILL find a way around it. I certainly will. And if that doesn't work, well, then it's your rivals hardware I'll be buying as-well.
Point is Facebook login as a requirement for social interaction is a huge mistake. I know Facebook, your new owners, are demanding it, but perhaps respond with a request for a VR ONLY facebook login, one that absolutely DOES NOT IN ANY WAY interact with the users presence on the standard facebook platform.
We don't want our annoyingly depressed and needy non-friends begging for our attention when we put on your headset... THAT'S NOT WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR. We're here for an escape, not a damn mandatory re-connect with everyone we dropped Facebook to avoid.
As for the Facebook team, this is why people are leaving Facebook... we're human beings, there are people we don't communicate with for a reason. Facebook has a way of making our presence known to them. Anonymity is a lusted after tool we all seek, each and every one of us. And you are anything but. We want to relax and escape from life's annoyances, not be bombarded by it.
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John Simpson
commented
Guys, Facebook is an absolute NO GO for me. I abandoned it after people kept trying to pry into my life, people I don't want to communicate with unless I contact them. Never the other way around. I don't need to be barraged by a bunch of people I don't want to talk to because I put on my Rift headset. Facebook is an absolute no go. Looks like Steam VR will be my primary home and social hub.
Sorry Oculus team. You made a giant brick wall for me here... Won't be using your platform for social anything now.
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Twila Parson
commented
13year olds should not have to have a social account to play with each other. Especially since predators use social media to find their victims. By you forcing parents to get their kids an account. Just so they can play I feel like you should also be responsible and held accountable for the actions of the predators that are out there using Facebook to hunt for their innocent under age victims. If you are a parent who agrees that your kids should not have to be on social media to play. Please write to Oculus and Facebook.
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suckitdaniel
commented
I agree that this is ridiculous to force facebook on oculus users for ANYTHING. As long as this is the practice of oculus, I will no longer support oculus products. I will buy the index.
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Ethan Rose
commented
most people who have oculus are mostly kids I think and just because Facebook lets you have a account at 13 doesn’t mean your parents let you have Facebook and I think that ALOT of kids are missing their chance playing with their friends and having fun but no you have to have Facebook so I think that we need to change this and as a kid that’s no fun
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Netheri
commented
Get rid of this feature. Not only it is forcing users of Oculus to do something that big part of them doesn't want to do but isn't it also illegal to force system users to use some software (Facebook) the manufacturer owns so that the whole system features work (which worked fine before this mandatory Facebook logging). I.e. Google can't force it's Pixel users in EU to use Google as a web search engine any more. Microsoft can't force it's Windows users to use Bing as a default search engine, etc. And even if it isn't illegal, there's already a lot of current users (includin me) saying that this mandatory Faceebooking is making them to switch to other PCVR manufacturers and it will affect new users too to not adopting Oculus hardware.
User security explanation about is just bs, as Oculus already has secured the user information of it's current users who have't logged on to the Facebook through VR, right?
EDIT: This is on Quest side of feature request, i'm answering as a Rift owner which also is affected.
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Jim Smith
commented
I agree, get rid of this BS. A feature that was and has been originally there, all of a sudden is removed, and now requires a facebook account for simple functionality? This is just total BS, I am so irate over this. I bought a quest and a rift S, My wife and I like to play with them together, I take the quest when I travel out of town for work, and we enjoy hanging out and doing stuff together on them. Neither of us have facebook, nor do we want anything to do with the cancer that is facebook, my children will not have a facebook either, as long as they live in my house. With a now defunct freinds list, due to facebook login, it makes the units a lot less useful for us. Unfortunately I am a few weeks out of my in store refund period, or else they would be back in the store already. Right now all i want to do is shove them up Mark Z's you know what.. I repeatedly asked, if you "had to have a facebook account", over and over at the store, and was reassured many times "you do not"... An now they are making you, or discriminating against you for not having one, or you do not get the full functions of the unit. No where on the box does it say that you have to have a facebook to use the full features of the device. That is some sort of bait and switch, or some sort of false advertising. It needs to be clearly labeled on the box. "REQUIRES FACEBOOK". I wish i could sue them for something, or at least just for a refund, so i can put the money towards two valve index's.
P.S,
anybody wanna buy a very lighty used rift S, and quest, almost new in the box.. for cheep? -
Anonymous
commented
Absolutely agree, do not force Facebook onto everyone. This is a feature that already existed, and been used for a very long time and works perfectly as it is.
Make ALL of your USERS HAPPY and INSTEAD of FORCING it, please make it an OPTIOIN, not a requirement to be able to use voice chat (Party Chat) with friends that we already have in your Oculus friends list.
If there are new features, Facebooks own HORIZON VR chat room application for instance that needs a Facebook account in order to be able to work, then fine. Make that new HORIZON chat room require that you login with a Facebook account. If users then choose to want to use that particular chat room, then they can create a new Facebook account or login to their existing account and use the HORIZON VR chat room.
Just don't take away functionalities we previously had, by forcing ALL Oculus users to be required to have a Facebook account and to have to be logged into it.
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Ben Raubenolt commented
One of my friends is returning his Quest over this new linking requirement and I can't really blame them. Facebook can't be trusted with the kind of information a Quest could potentially provide. The Oculus account actually had independent friends lists and they removed it just to force Facebook on us. So the device can now do less than it did when I bought it and I have less friends to play with.
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PC allen
commented
Facebook makes privacy a complicated multi-step process and even then your personal info isn't always safe. I want to enjoy the Oculus not keep a look out for all the haters, gullible lonely ppl, fishers and third party threats. $500 is a lot of money to flush on Oculus if they end up going down with Facebook. Sorry, Facebook just keeps stepping in it and uses members to wipe it. Facebook can't be trusted. It's just s matter of time before Facebook folds up. Spare Oculus !
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P X
commented
I wanted untethered VR for the past 15 years. I was going to buy your device, until you came out with sharing data with your FB parent. With your drasticly fallible data protection I do not have faith in you security of my information, so I will wait until you competitors beat you out of the league. Also Beat Saber is drasticlly over rated.
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Ryan
commented
Don’t make it so we have to sign into Facebook for social features. I wanna play vr with my friends, not make a social media account I’m not going to use. I paid for the headset so there shouldn’t be limitations like this.