Skip to main content
tomleylan
Inspiring
March 25, 2024

PWA on Quest

I've been experimenting a bit with PWAs and tried to build and install one on my Quest. I notice some posts here with questions (about failures when following the docs) and I'm guessing the same will happen to me. So far I've tried several utilities and while the PWA runs locally or from the website I've been unable to build an .apk.

I have little interest in building for a "store" I just need to get something running so I can test things out. Frankly I'm very surprised that PWA development on the Quest isn't finding a bigger niche. It seems plainly obvious that lots of utilities are needed to make working/playing in VR more like working/playing on a PC. I don't mean seeing a PC screen in VR. People won't be sitting in front of their PC all the time.

So if anyone has any advice, pointers to tutorials or documentation "that works" or would like to chat about this please post a reply.

2 replies

tomleylanAuthor
Inspiring
March 25, 2024

I don't want to change the topic (still looking to chat with interested parties about PWAs) but I'll take a moment to express my disbelief in the way these solutions are presented. If I wanted to build a Unity app, a website, a Blazor app, something using Svelte, etc. I'd visit a related website, follow along and have something that day. If we want to use VS Code we click on a link and it is installed. It is updated, there are supported extensions, etc. If something breaks it can be reported and is generally fixed.

 

If it is announced that PWAs can run on the Quest it means "it must have been tested" by Meta. That should mean they know the steps and tooling and seemingly a introductory guide could be made available.. How could making it confusing and hard be of benefit to anyone?

If you are selling cars you don't have to teach me to drive but you can't make it impossible to find the gas cap.

tomleylanAuthor
Inspiring
March 25, 2024

Well whatever it was that was wrong with https://www.pwabuilder.com/ seems to have been fixed. It generated the .apk project and I was able to install it.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement