Immersive VR mode in browser redirects you to the Hub

someuser994455

My setup is Quest Pro with the vanilla browser that comes preinstalled on the headset.

A year ago I wrote a post about how suboptimal the Hub was for regular navigation. The post is here and after a few months I was glad to see that the problem that I originally reported was fixed.

A few weeks back however I noticed that, once again, SLR is forcing the Hub on folks that use the browser from a VR headset.

More specifically, when I open a video in immersive mode the browser will open the Hub instead of opening the video directly in the browser. Being redirected to the Hub is annoying, as described in that original post that I wrote a year ago. It also forces you to sign in once again, which makes no sense.

Is this new flow intentional? Or is it just a bug that no one has reported yet. If this is intentional, can you guys revert back to the old behavior? At the very least I'd ask that you guys add a settings option that would allow us to disable the Hub for real for real, so that you guys do not redirect the corresponding account to the Hub. For those of us who want immersive mode videos in the browser - and not the Hub -, can you guys add an option to disable the Hub?

I could not pinpoint the exact point in time when this started. Must have been around a month ago or so.

cc @Kieshi who provided support last time.

Cheers.

AlexSLR

@someuser994455 Hi 😊

This change was made intentionally. We’re now redirecting users to the Hub because we’re focusing our efforts on developing it, and the best immersive experience we offer is through the Hub and our app.

We’d love to hear more about what you don’t like about the Hub and what features you feel are missing. Since last year, the Hub has undergone massive improvements, so your feedback will help us make it even better! 🙌
The search feature is coming soon 👌

someuser994455

No amount of feedback will help bridge a gap that is not salvageable.

I'll be brutally honest here. Take this as the feedback from someone who paid for one of these lifetime subscriptions and thus wonders what happened to his money.

You guys intentionally capping the browser for VR headsets makes no sense. It makes no sense because you guys still support the browser experience on computers. And it makes no sense because essentially all other VR porn websites out there still offer it. The browser experience is the norm, it's the easiest, and it's what most people probably want. To you guys it is very easy to still support this experience.

I explained all my arguments to you guys in my original post, so I will not repeat myself here since that would be a lot of text. You can instead go and read one of my messages from that thread where I gave a few reasons, here .

The summary though is that you guys are trying to build an experience that cannot beat (will never beat) the browsability of a web browser. I'm here to watch porn, find a quick video, squeeze one out, and put the headset away. Any friction that you add to that process is not welcome, and the Hub adds unnecessary friction.

I'm gonna say another thing that I suggest your company take into consideration. I'm saying this from the standpoint of a customer that wants to see you succeed. But I'm also saying this as a tech guy: are you guys looking at user metrics here? I have serious doubts that forcing the Hub on your VR users improves any engagement metric overall. I am of course speaking from a very biased point of view because, as my opinion clearly states, I passionately hate the Hub, so I'm aware I could be wrong. But I very much doubt that forcing the Hub is bringing any meaningful engagement metric up, and to me the opposite is intuitively more likely. I have a hunch that this Hub project is falling into "sunken cost fallacy" territory and some people there (PMs, engineers working on this, etc.) are simply too afraid to admit it and have decided to die on that hill instead.

@AlexSLR , to you specifically: you ask about feedback. You can read the message I linked above from the post from a year ago. You can also address this that I said in this thread, which is annoying:

It also forces you to sign in once again, which makes no sense.

Thanks.

SchnuppiLilac

someuser994455 If you didn't want to use DeoVR because of others using your headset: It is basically a neutral video player/streaming app (it's in the Meta app store) and doesn't have a label on it that says porn. You can remove any traces of SLR probably even more easily than in the Quest browser, and Quest OS lets you lock the app with a passcode if you want to avoid the clean-up after use.

AlexSLR

someuser994455 Thank you for your feedback!
I just wanted to check if you have any additional points regarding the Hub experience. Since last year, the Hub has improved significantly, so perhaps your thoughts on it have changed as well 🙂

someuser994455

@AlexSLR the main points I raised a year ago still stand. Not sure why you keep asking for feedback. The feedback was there a year ago, and it is still there now.

As it is implied on this thread, my opinion on the Hub has not changed. It's an awful thing that should be burned to the ground with napalm if you ask me.

And look, I get it. I also work in tech, it sucks to build something that doesn't make the world a better place. Acknowledging that is part of the tech job though.

nuaalc

@AlexSLR After this change, I can no longer open videos in immersive mode because I cannot access SLR through DeoVR, but I can access any other webpage through DeoVR. I don't know what the problem is, this change is unnecessary

AlexSLR

nuaalc Is there an error message when you try to access SLR through the app?
What is the DeoVR app version?
What headset do you use?

sportclimber

Why in the world do I need the Hub when DeoVR exists? If I want that type of (more limited) experience, I'll use DeoVR. I'D REALLY like the option of using the browser when I have the time to do more of a deep dive.