I’m new to XR development. I know needle engine use Unity and NodeJS to build a WebXR site.
Since it use unity, is it possible to convert or export the project to a meta quest app that can be install through sidequest?
by user 237048588109217794
You mean converting into an APK? I think that is possible but haven’t personally tried it – typically you can just point people at the URL.
Would you mind explaining a bit about the additional features you’d want to use when bundling as APK?
I think WebXR is a good starting point for a project. But when it grows it might require more resources, such as more storage for some 3D model, materials or video audio files.
That might be a breakpoint to consider convert it to a standalone app that runs in Quest headset.
However, it seems that the WebXR interface might not be able to directly covert to quest openXR sdk?
by user 237048588109217794
Also, is the component written in typescript being able to port into a android app?
by user 237048588109217794
For clarification, do you want to bundle the WebXR app (so it stays WebXR but has more access to APIs and resources) or do you want to create a separate native app?
Typically when you start with a web app and want to deploy that to native it’s bundled as a browser shell + your web app code + potentially more glue to other native APIs you need
A separate Native app. I thought needle engine uses unity provides the potential to covert to a native quest app. But I don’t know if it is possible?
by user 237048588109217794
You can do that – then it’s basically separate build targets from the Unity perspective. You either build to a web app (using Needle) or to a native Android app (using Unity’s regular stack).
You do in fact need to have matching TypeScript and C# code at that point, a number of apps are using that approach – code is not automagically ported over
Thanks for clarifying the use case of needle engine. 
by user 237048588109217794
Personally I find the advantages of using the browser as a platform almost always outweigh the ones of native apps nowadays, but of course your usecase might differ 
Like, even using the browser as platform for a native app (like what Discord/Slack/almost everyone else is doing by now with their “native apps” that are effectively browser apps in a shell)
I don’t know if I get this right. Do you mean something like wrapping the browser into an app to keep everything work? That seems a good way to extend the application with more ability
by user 237048588109217794
Yes, that’s what e.g. the discord client you’re using right now does – it’s exactly the same app no matter if you use the browser or the native app on any platform
On native platforms it just gains a few more features (like sending notifications and the like)
We do not currently have a sample for bundling a WebXR app that way right now I’m afraid – @ROBYER1 you did look into this, right?