Meta announces that Oculus Quest 2 fitness fans will soon be able to integrate their VR workout data with the Apple Health app.
While playing games on TV, computer, or mobile device screens set in front of the player is still the norm, VR popularity continues to rise. Part of its recent increase in participants is due to the Oculus Quest line of virtual reality headsets, created by Meta, formerly Facebook.
For a lot of players, the Oculus Quest offers a way to help get movement in on a daily basis, especially when cooped up due to the pandemic. The Oculus Quest 2 has its own method of tracking movement via the headset and controllers, translating that into calories burned, but until now, it hasn’t had a way of directly transferring that data into an external fitness tracker.
Starting next month, fitness data tracked on the Oculus Quest 2 via Oculus Move will sync with users’ Apple Health app. This will allow players to see any data on movement time and calories burned while using the Oculus Quest 2 on their iPhone. For those who already use the Apple Health app or the Apple Watch to keep track of things like external workouts or movement time, this information will now be integrated into one place.
While Meta hasn’t announced specific plans to sync data this way with Android apps, it did state that it’s looking into expanding to additional fitness platforms, so common apps like Google Fit may be next up. However, in the meantime, both Android and iPhone users can expect to see their fitness game data synchronized with their phones via the Oculus app, which should make it easier to manually note and transfer any workout data to the user’s fitness platform of choice.
However, some users are likely concerned with protecting their privacy. In order to synchronize this data, the information will be first transferred to Meta’s cloud, and will then be downloaded to the user’s phone app. While plenty of people use data storage clouds on a daily basis, some have voiced privacy concerns with Meta. However, the service is optional, so those who aren’t interested in syncing with their phones should be able to keep their fitness data restricted to the Oculus Quest 2 headset’s local storage.
While Meta’s vision of the Metaverse may or may not come to fruition, fans of the wireless VR headsets are already big fans of using them for fitness. Rhythm games like Beat Saber can get users’ blood pumping, but fitness-specific games like Supernatural and FitXR are also gaining popularity.
Source: CNET
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