Introducing Oculus Notifications in Beta

Notifications are one of the primary ways we communicate with the Oculus community on their mobile devices. Until now, developers have not had an easy way to communicate directly with their users when they're not in VR.

Starting today, we are opening up our server-to-server (S2S) REST API to our developer community to begin testing Oculus Notifications on Gear VR in Beta.

We use Notifications to send people important updates, recommend content, and notify them of their friends' activity. Notifications are accessed in the Oculus app on mobile, the home of Gear VR. People are made aware of new Notifications by badging both on and in the Oculus app. This has been an important channel for communicating with our community and we would like to share this opportunity with you, our developers. Now, as a developer, you can create and send targeted messages to people who've installed your app directly in their Notifications feed with Oculus Notifications (Beta).

You can use Notifications for any number of reasons. Congratulate your app's users for unlocking an achievement, notify them of an upcoming in-game event, or remind them to revisit your app to explore new content. To send Notifications, you'll need to first create copy for the Notification and then identify who will receive it.

People can unsubscribe from your app's Notifications. So, it is in your best interest to send high-quality, relevant messages at a reasonable cadence. When writing your Notification, aim for a concise, personalized message with a clear call to action. Every character counts - the Notification title can accommodate 30 characters (or less) and the Notification message can accommodate 70 characters (or less). Notifications can link to anywhere inside your app by providing a deeplink URI, but not to other external sources (e.g. your website or blog).

All Notifications must conform to the Oculus Content and Design Guidelines. Apps that violate these guidelines or otherwise create a poor user experience may be blocked from sending Notifications. Use your best judgment!

People are made aware of these Notifications both by badging on and in the Oculus app on Gear VR. Once someone clicks on your Notification in the Oculus app, your app will automatically launch for a deeper experience. Note that these are not push notifications.

Your Developer Dashboard will now include a link in the left-hand navigation under the "Analytics" heading called “Notifications.” You will be able to view analytics to learn how your Notifications are performing. You can track sends, impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and unsubscribes.

Refer to our Notifications documentation to learn how to create and send Notifications to your target audience. We welcome your feedback on the Notifications feature as we'll be monitoring the beta over the next few months.