We’re all familiar with the process when it comes to the Oculus Storefront and its strict curation. This ensures the quality of games and experiences top-quality and prevents low-quality apps from slipping into the gaps. This also makes it difficult for independent developers to make their VR content on the Oculus platform.
Oculus created the “App Lab” as a way to combat this problem. It lets independent developers publish their VR content on an official place without needing to undergo the rigorous selection process of the Oculus Storefront. The App Lab is very similar to the Oculus storefront. You can browse and download apps in the same way as you do in a traditional virtual storefront. However, it’s not as curated.
If your app performs well in the App Lab it may be promoted to the Oculus Storefront and gain more visibility and be able to reach a wider audience. This is not solely based on numbers of downloads but also on retention metrics, long term profitability, the teams working on development and so on.
If you’re looking to explore the entire range of Oculus Quest apps, we recommend that you enable developer mode on your Meta headset and test out App Lab. There are lots of fun games and try this site experiences, including well-known nongames like Tilt Brush which turns your headset in to an immersive art studio. There’s also a bunch of cool VR media applications like Quill Theater, which showcases some amazing community created films and animations.