Oculus enables casting Go headset to smartphone smartphone

Oculus has added functionality to its Go-VR headset to cast the display to a smartphone so bystanders can see what the wearer sees. Chromecast support will follow in the future.

Oculus is making the feature available in beta this week. Users of the mobile Oculus Go can choose ‘Cast’ in the menu, after which a mobile device with the Oculus app will receive a notification. If the headset and smartphone or tablet are on the same WiFi network, the image can then be streamed.

The update aims to make bystanders more involved in what the wearer sees. For example, with the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Sony PlayStation VR, the display can already be seen on a monitor or TV.

In February of this year, the Oculus CTO, John Carmack, already known working on deploying the smartphone as a second screen for the Go, but that this would probably not be ready with the release of the headset. In the spring of 2019, Oculus will release the Quest, also standalone VR glasses, but with support for 6DoF. It will probably receive support for casting immediately, since it runs the same Android-based operating system.