On Tuesday, Oculus revealed more details about its newest update. Version 34, or v34 for short. The update is available now and brings several major upgrades to the VR software. Chief among them are the introduction of new voice commands, notifications for Android phones, and a new feature for the Guardian system called Space Sense. Oculus says the improvements made to voice commands will make them more capable of handling your everyday tasks. You’ll now be able to pause and play media in Oculus TV, as well as open certain applications using your voice. Additionally, you also can use voice commands to show or hide your Move stats, jump straight to certain settings—like your Wi-Fi options—and even ask simple questions like “what’s the weather like today?” V34 also brings the introduction of phone notifications for Android devices. This feature previously was enabled for iOS users with version 29, and now Oculus will let Android phone owners see their notifications in VR, too. It makes it easy to keep track of incoming text messages and other notifications, and you can set it all up from the Oculus app. Once set up, you can receive any notifications in VR that you would typically have displayed on your phone’s lock screen. Oculus also touched on the future of Passthrough API. It plans to launch an upcoming software development kit (SDK) with the API, allowing developers to create mixed-reality applications. Finally, Oculus also included Space Sense in the release of v34. A new feature of Oculus’ Guardian—designed to keep you safer in VR—Space Sense will warn you of any objects or people that intrude on your Guardian’s bounds. The intruding objects will be highlighted in a pinkish glow, making it easy to spot them before you run into them.
