Oculus Update Lets You See Yourself in VR

An update coming to the Oculus Quest and Quest 2 headsets will provide a wide range of new features, including the ability to capture a picture of yourself in VR. 

The V29 software rolling out soon introduces Live Overlay ability, which will give you an easy way to capture an image of yourself using VR superimposed over the content displayed in your headset. All VR apps that support casting and recording should work with this feature, according to Oculus.

Android users should keep in mind that the Live Overlay feature only works with iOS for now. You need an iPhone XS or later. You can then turn on the overlay in settings and snap away with the phone camera. 

Social media users reacted with excitement to the news of the update. "Maybe a stretch, but I wonder if Live Overlay is a step towards full-body tracking using your phone's camera as an external tracker?" wrote Reddit user TrefoilHat on Tuesday.

"Think about it: your phone is already paired with your Quest2, and Facebook has shown very sophisticated body kinematics from camera videos. Live Overlay shows that they can pull a body shape from a video stream in real-time."

Other features of the V29 update include additions to make the Oculus more conducive to productivity. The company has added the ability for iOS users to stay connected without removing their headsets. You can enable iOS phone notifications in your Oculus App Settings (on an iPhone 7 or above), and you’ll see your lock screen notifications appear in your headset. 

There’s also a new Files App in the app library that lets you access, browse, manage, share, and upload files located on your headset across multiple locations in VR.

Another goodie is the new Passthrough environment shortcut to quickly give you a view of your surroundings. You can click on the Passthrough Home “eye” icon on the Quick Settings menu to toggle between the real and virtual worlds.