Introducing Meta Accounts and Meta Horizon Profiles for VR

According to Meta News, Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta accounts: a new way for people to log into their VR headsets that don’t require a Facebook account.

Starting in August 2022, if you’re new to Meta VR devices or have previously merged your Oculus account with your Facebook account, you’ll need to create a Meta account and Meta Horizon profile. If you’ve been logging into your VR device with your Oculus account, you can continue to do so until January 1, 2023, at which point you’ll need to create a Meta account and Meta Horizon profile to continue using your Meta VR device.

A user’s Meta account is supposedly not a social media profile so it lets you log into your VR devices and view and manage your purchased apps in one place.

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You can also add your Meta account to the same Accounts Center as your Facebook or Instagram account to unlock connected experiences across Meta technologies — like finding your Facebook friends to play games within VR or chatting with friends on Messenger.

Meta Horizon Profile

After a user finishes creating a Meta account, they’ll be prompted to create a Meta Horizon profile. The Meta Horizon profile is the social profile in VR and other surfaces, like from a web browser. One can customize how you appear to others — as a gamer or as your buttoned-up 9-to-5 persona.

Your Oculus friends will become your followers, similar to how it works on Instagram. This update provides more ways to be social and connect with others. You can choose whether to share your active status and activity updates, like the apps you own and your achievements, with your followers.

Privacy Controls

We want to let you control who you interact with in VR and build your own community. As part of this update, you’ll now find a menu with three privacy options to help guide you through which privacy settings are the best fit for you: Open to Everyone, Friends and Family, and Solo.

As part of these privacy settings, you have the option to set your Meta Horizon profile to private, which means you’ll be asked to review and approve follower requests. If you choose this option, only your followers can see who you follow and who follows you.

Keep in mind that people who don’t follow you will still be able to view your profile picture, avatar, username, display name, follower count, and the number of people you follow. People can also still search for your name or username and send you to follow requests.