Apparently, "can you use Discord on Oculus Quest 2?" looks like the question in the minds of many people. Well, let's answer it.
As the most successful Oculus headset ever, the Quest 2 has reached a pretty wide audience. And Discord, the rapidly growing messaging and chat platform, had around 300 million users in 2020. So it stands to reason that there could well be some overlap between people who like using Discord, and who want to use it on their Oculus Quest 2.
Today, we'll be looking at whether that's actually possible. If so, we'll talk about how you might be able to use it without a PC. Intrigued? You should be.
Can you use Discord on Oculus Quest 2?
There are undoubtedly some challenges in linking Discord to the Oculus Quest 2. Oculus is owned by Mela, while Discord is not. So in essence, allowing Discord to work on your Quest 2 would be allowing a competing service.
Meta isn't really known for its support of rival enterprises. They would much prefer you to use their own party chat service on Quest 2. So at the time of writing, no Discord app exists for Quest 2.
In addition, the Oculus is really only intended to support one app at a time. So if you are watching a movie on the Netflix app, say, or playing a game, loading a Discord app would, in theory, close whatever app you had running. This somewhat defeats the purpose of having it on your Quest, if you wanted to use it to chat with friends while gaming.
So is that the end of the story? Well, not quite. There is an option you can consider, which will enable you to use Discord. But be warned: it isn't perfect.
- Read More: How to use Discord on Xbox
How to use Discord on Oculus Quest 2 without PC
You can, of course, run Discord on your PC, and use that separately to your Quest 2. You would just need a separate mic from the in-built one on your headset. But what about if you want to avoid that slightly convoluted setup? Is there anything else you might be able to try?
You can consider something called SideQuest. This is a marketplace which gives you access to games and apps that you may not be able to get through Oculus directly. Because the Quest 2 runs on Android architecture, you can install APK files on it, much like you would any other Android device. You can run this through an Android phone or a PC.
It is easier to use SideQuest with Android. If this is something you want to explore, then there's a helpful guide on the steps you need to follow here. You can then "sideload" the Discord app onto your Quest 2.
Sideloading is when you upload content onto the device that is not verified or approved by Oculus. Anything that appears on SideQuest (or other sites that offer similar services) that is not on the official Oculus page, that you install, would be sideloaded.
It is worth noting that the Quest may still not allow you to use your mic on the Discord app, and typing will be a pretty slow process. Whether you feel it's something you want to explore, is up to you.