The Oculus Quest is one of the most anticipated VR headsets this year. It’s also one of the most perfect devices to try out streaming services in VR. I have been looking forward to trying Sling TV since there are already players for PC VR headsets that work great with their controllers, let alone if they were made for hand-free use on the Quest!
Sling TV does support gesture controls, but I would recommend using a controller because it can get tedious moving your hand up and down like crazy every time you want to do something simple like select categories within game menus or scroll through lists (like your channel list).
Sling TV provides many VIP perks including 6 free months of service when you get an Oculus Quest headset, exclusive discounts forest owners for the first year and a free $5 voucher to use with any Sling TV in-app purchase (you can put this towards an app like Virtual Desktop or AltspaceVR so you can watch your favorite shows with friends). If you’re interested in virtual reality headsets and accessories, check out the [Oculus Rift Bundle].
Sling TV is available on many devices including Roku, Firestick, PC VR Headsets such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, iOS/Android phones & tablets, Chromecast, Xbox One consoles, AndroidTV, AppleTV 4th gen+4k TVs that contain built-in Netflix support.
If you want more info on the specs of the headset I used for this review, see my Oculus Quest 2 Review.
After you sign up for the free trial, the main menu allows you to choose your username and avatar. This will be your name in all social VR apps that interact with Sling TV. You can change it by clicking on your name/avatar in the top right corner of any menu or window.
The first time you log into Facebook, Facebook asks for permission to use data from Sling TV to personalize your experience in other apps (like bringing friends list info over). The second time you log in, it won’t show this screen again unless you close out of the app entirely. This is pretty annoying because I would rather not have my FB info synced with another app unless I am logged in on the web. You will be required to sign in to Facebook or Google each time you want to log back in.
You can also change your avatar for your Oculus profile by clicking on your avatar/name in the top right corner of any menu or window. This is the only place where you edit your avatar, so choose wisely! Once done, click on “Edit Profile” and you’ll see this screen:
If you’ve used Sling TV on PC VR headsets, most of this should look familiar to you, but some things are different (such as DVR settings). You can’t access parental controls on the Quest unless you set them up on their website (I don’t watch anything rated higher than TV-MA, but I’m sure it can be helpful for some people).
You can also set the headset brightness in the app (which is good for if you’re watching in a dark room) and choose your audio source (if you want to watch with friends over headphones or Chromecast speakers).
Your TV Provider info will pull up when looking at what channels are available in your subscription tier. You can find this page on their website by scrolling down to the bottom of the main site after logging into your account.
Sling TV has one of the most diverse collections of apps I’ve seen on the Oculus Quest so far, but if you’re not into watching TV or playing video games, there may not be much you can do with Sling TV. The main problem for me is that their app options are not very aesthetically appealing to me (which I’ll get to later), though you might find them more to your liking if they mesh better with what you like doing!
The Facebook tab makes it easy to bring up your friends list and invite people over for a viewing party if they have an Oculus Quest too. You can access their Facebook page by clicking the icon of two people at the bottom of this window:
It’s pretty laggy, but It’s easiest to navigate through these menus using controllers because gestures are finicky when it comes to scrolling through things in VR (and even more so when I’m using a headset that’s not my own).
The Activities tab is a fun way to see what my friends are watching, liking, and sharing on Sling TV. You can also go into the activity sidebar anytime you want to see the comments your friends leave wherever they comment.
It may take some time for all of your Facebook contacts to show up in your activities list because not everyone is signed up for Sling TV yet! If you use Facebook often, you will find this feature useful though.