Using the Oculus Move app on the Quest and Quest 2, you can set and track your movement goals. Here’s an overview of how this feature works and how to get the most from it.
What Is Oculus Move?
Oculus Move is a free system app included on Oculus Quest and Quest 2 headsets. It’s a system-wide fitness tracker that allows you to keep track of how much activity you’re doing in VR. Since it works across games, you make progress no matter what games you’re playing.
No fitness tracker is perfect, so Oculus Move isn’t a replacement for a dedicated fitness band or doctor-recommended exercise routine. But it’s worth setting up to at least see how much time you’ve spent moving around each day.
How to Set Up Oculus Move
On your Quest’s main menu, hit the Oculus button on the right controller to bring up the menu, if you don’t see it already. Next, select the grid icon on the right side to show all your apps. Choose Oculus Move from the list.
If you have trouble finding it in your list of apps, change the dropdown box at the top-right to Oculus Apps to show only default apps.
The first time you open Oculus Move, it will walk you through entering basic information and setting your goals. If you’re OK with doing so, entering your age, weight, height, and sex will provide more accurate calorie information. Otherwise, the system will estimate these based on averages.
Oculus Move has two main goals: calories burned and active time. There are suggested goals in multiple tiers for both of these in the setup process; choose from them or enter your own amount. You’re also asked to choose a weekly target, which is how many days per week you want to achieve the above goals.
Don’t worry about your choices; you can change any of this later. Once you’ve finished the initial setup, open the Move app anytime to see your historical data and make changes. Let’s next see how to interpret the data this service collects.
Viewing Data in the Oculus Move App
After you’ve played for a while and allowed Move to collect some data, you can view it in a variety of ways. On the Stats page, you’ll see your data for the day, which you can view as either a pie chart or bar graph. Use the app names on the right side to filter by the various games you’ve played. This is a handy way to see which VR games give you the best workout.
Select View Calendar at the top to see your chart for each day; choose a day to review data from it. The Trends screen gives you info based on how you’ve done lately, letting you see your average activity.
On the History tab, you’ll see historical data. Use the All Stats dropdown if you want to filter by year, month, or week. The tabs on the chart let you pick which data type to view, and you can again use the apps list on the right to only show info from a certain game.
Finally, use the Settings menu to change a couple of options. Enabling Notifications will give you updates on your progress as you play. If you need to change your data or want to tweak your goals, visit the Personal Info and Goals section. Make sure Track Movement is on so your headset can track your physical activity.
You can also Clear your info here if you don’t want this info stored on your device anymore.
Viewing Oculus Move Data While Playing
You can’t open the Move app while you’re playing another game. However, there’s an overlay option that lets you check your progress towards your daily goals anytime.
If you didn’t enable this during the initial setup, head back to the Move app and go to Settings. Set the In-Game Overlay to Top or Bottom per your preference.
Now, when you look up or down, you’ll see how many calories you’ve burned and how many minutes you’ve been active. Remember that the tool uses the movements of your head and hands to track this.
Thus, games where you’re moving around rapidly (like playing custom Beat Saber songs on high difficulties) will burn more calories than a slower game (such as Moss).
If you aren’t moving constantly, you won’t earn active time for each minute you’re playing.
Concerns With Oculus Move
Oculus does state that it collects and aggregates data about people meeting their goals, but none of this info is tied to you.
If you’d like, you can share your Move stats to your Facebook page or in Messenger, but this is optional.
As stated above, Oculus Move isn’t a formalized workout tracker. You’ll get more accurate information if you pair it with, say, a fitness tracker that monitors your heart rate. Oculus Move doesn’t currently sync with Apple Health or other platforms, though.
Sweat It Out With Oculus Move
Now you know how to enable Oculus Move to track your fitness goals in VR. Getting some activity in VR titles is a great way to combat sedentary days at home, so it’s a feature worth setting up to help push you towards your goals.
If you can’t spend much time in VR, there are other great video games to help you stay active with exercise.
