How Quest runtime and features updates get distributed

It’s a typical situation for me: I wake up and reading the VR news, I find that Meta is releasing a new interesting update for the Quest. Wow, a new feature is coming out, starting from today! I can’t wait to try it and review it! Then I turn on the Quest and… nothing has changed 😐 Ok, I understand I have to be a bit patient, so I wait some more days… and there is finally a new update to the firmware of my device! And… no, that feature is not available yet as well. But what the…??

I guess I’m not the only one that has had similar problems. That’s why I have investigated a bit on the topic and decided to write this recap of how the updates for Quest get rolled out, mixing some well-known info with some special tidbits that some experts told me.

Updates rollout

Here comes the basic info that most of you already know: updates to Quest runtime get a gradual rollout. This means that Meta doesn’t trigger the update to all Quests of the world at the same time, but it lets an always-increasing number of devices receive it. This way, if there is a problem with the first group that receives it, the company can pause the distribution and solve it before causing bugs to all the millions of Quest users (with subsequent shitstorm on Reddit). This is a smart way of managing the whole process, but of course, this means that you may have to wait a bit more to receive a new update depending on where you are in the timeline of the rollout.

Regions and timing

According to Meta, the rollouts are not influenced by location. It means that the updates are not distributed using region groups (e.g. US first, then Spain, then UK, then Italy, etc…). They are random all around the world, and I think this is important also to spot immediately any kind of issue that may happen in all the possible different configurations of the devices (e.g. different language packs). They are also randomly extracted each time, so the fact you are receiving a certain update soon doesn’t mean you will be one of the first to receive also the next ones. It’s a bit like playing a lottery game each time.

As for the timing, usually, rollouts require a few days if things go smoothly. If Meta finds some problems, then they take a bit more time.

Features gating

And here we come to the tricky part: sometimes you have finally received the new promised release update but you don’t have the promised feature anyway! For instance, I have just received the v39 version of the Quest runtime which should include the new amazing hand tracking v2, but I don’t have any kind of improved hand tracking. How is it possible?

Well, I’ve been told that Meta, like other big companies, has another security measure through which it can also tune the rollout per-feature. It’s like it has some remote flags on some special features which decide if your device can enable them or not. So in my case, I have the runtime with the code to make hand tracking v2 to work, but that code is being prevented from running from Meta’s servers.

You may wonder why this complication is necessary. I’ve been told that is important so it is possible to have better control over the rollout process. For instance, one new experimental feature may be distributed more slowly than all the others so as to check for errors more thoroughly, and in case it creates problems, it can be disabled remotely without affecting the distribution of the whole runtime update. This is actually very smart: imagine if after an update they discovered that a new feature was buggy and had to issue a rollback of the update on all the devices or a new sudden update to fix the problem. That would be a mess. With this flag mechanism, instead, they just need to command the runtime of all devices to switch off the dangerous feature, and the update of all the rest can go on as planned.

So some important features may have their own rollout timeline inside of the greater rollout timeline of the whole runtime update. Features rollouts usually last 3-5 days, but they can last longer if there are problems.

Of course, these feature rollouts inside a runtime rollout create some confusion for the users, so I tried asking if there is a way for the user to see which are the features enabled for his/her device, but I’ve been told that most probably is not possible without having some special Meta software tools. I think that it would be good if Meta, offered an insight over it for developers (so as an unlockable feature for those who have the device enabled as a developer).

PTC

If you are eager to receive new features before the other people and you are ok risking a few crashes to test them while they are still in beta, remember that you can join the Quest PTC (Public Test Channel), so that you receive a “beta preview” of the upcoming public runtime version before the others. Joining the PTC requires a few simple steps:

1. Make sure your Oculus Mobile app is v136 or later.
2. From the Oculus mobile app, tap Devices at the bottom right.
3. Under Headset Settings, tap Advanced Settings.
4. Tap the toggle next to Public Test Channel to try to join Quest PTC.

Remember that Quest PTC will only be available for a limited number of participants: if the toggle is disabled, Quest PTC is currently full and not available to join.

I hope this has given you a better insight into what’s happening with the Quest updates… now when you will complain about why a new feature is not coming to you, you can do that in a more informed way!

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