“What is sideloading?” I thought you’d never ask! Normally, when you install apps on a device, it’s installed through a marketplace. With android phones, it’s the google play store. With iOS devices, it’s through iTunes. For Quest devices, it’s the Oculus store. Apple really doesn’t want you to install apps outside their store, so you have follow a complicated process to be able to do that. For android phones, it’s much easier. With the Quest, it’s a little more involved than with an android phone, but it’s not terribly complicated. Once you’ve set things up for sideloading, your options for games and other apps increase dramatically.

SideQuest

SideQuest is a software program you run on your PC that you use to upload files to your Quest. It’s also a website you can find games and other apps to install. Many of these games are free, but many are not. There is a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up your computer and your Quest to use the SideQuest software, and there’s even a video to walk you through the process. You don’t need to have a gaming computer for this. In fact, you don’t need to have a PC at all as long as you have an android phone.

App Lab

Oculus has opened up a middle-of-the-road option, called App Lab. These are for games that don’t quite make the cut for the Oculus store, but can still be installed without going through the trouble of sideloading. Many of these games are still experimental or are still in development. While these games can also be found in the Oculus store, the easiest way to find them is go to the App Lab section of the SideQuest site You can install them by clicking the install link either on your PC (where you’re signed in to your Oculus account) or from your phone where you have the Oculus app.