VR Android File Manager for Quest, available on the Meta Horizon Store, lets you install downloaded APKs without a PC.

It comes from the same developer as Quest Games Optimizer, a $10 sideloadable app popular with enthusiasts that lets you override the visual settings of VR games, such as resolution, refresh rate, foveation level, and more.

To be clear, it's been possible to sideload other file manager apps that let you install APKs for a long time now. But what makes VR Android File Manager special is that it's available on the Horizon Store. That means you don't need to ever use a PC, not even to initially sideload a file manager. In fact, you don't even need developer mode enabled.

If you're not sure what any of this means: Meta's Horizon OS is based on Android, and APK is the file format for Android apps. When you install an app from the Horizon Store, Meta's system automatically downloads and installs the APK in the background, without you ever needing to know what's going on, and handles updating it. But this isn't the only way to obtain apps for your Quest.

You can obtain APKs for popular free 2D Android apps on websites like APKMirror, or for VR Android apps distributed by individual developers off-store, but Horizon OS doesn't natively let you install them on-device. Instead, you need to either install them over USB via a PC, a process known as sideloading, or sideload an app that itself lets you install APKs.

That's why having such an app on the store is so significant. However, it's unclear whether Meta approved it knowing that it had this capability.

Last month, Meta forced the developer of Mobile VR Station, another app on the store, to remove this capability, noting that it "facilitates the installation of other apps".

Thus, it seems possible that Meta will ask VR Android File Manager's developer to do the same. But for now, it's available for free, and works with Quest 3, Quest 3S, Quest 2, and Quest Pro.