Launched at Google’s #madebygoogle event today, Daydream View enables Daydream-ready phones such as the new Pixel devices to host virtual reality content directly within Android. Daydream is built into Android 7.0 Nougat, enabling next-generation smartphones to display virtual reality experiences in a headset without any special software or add-on hardware.
As with its Pixel phones, Google has designed and developed Daydream View entirely on its own. It is one of the first products to emerge from Google’s newly-established in-house hardware division, joining the Pixel and Pixel XL and a selection of other devices introduced onstage today.
Google has designed Daydream View with three key differentiating points in mind. The company has focused on improving the comfort, ease of use and customisation options of existing virtual reality headsets. It noticed that most current commercial solutions put the technology at the forefront of the experience and neglect considering how the headset’s actually worn.
Google has taken the opposite approach. With headsets classed as “wearable” devices, the company looked first to clothes for inspiration. It found it could make Daydream View at once lighter and more comfortable by cladding it with soft, breathable fabric, rather than the hard plastic of its rivals. The result is a visually striking headset that’s 30% lighter than competitor devices and can be easily worn over glasses.
Daydream is easy to set up and pair with a phone. It connects wirelessly to your device, eliminating the dangling cables and cords of other solutions. The phone and headset then work the details out themselves. An automatic alignment system takes care of calibration and setup, letting you enter a VR world by just placing your phone in the headset.
Daydream View is accompanied by a special Daydream controller. This is what you use to interact with the virtual reality landscape. Google has engineered it to let you interact with VR “the same way you do in the real world.” It’s based on motion sensing and gesture tracking tech, capable of pointing where you point and understanding the movements you make with it. It can act as a bat in a sports game, a wand in a fantasy world or a pencil in an artistic environment.
Google is touting a library of “incredible experiences” that already work with Daydream VR. However, the current focus seems to be on YouTube videos and personal cinema. A handful of games are available, including Wonderlade, Gunjack 2, Need for Speed and Hungry Shark World, but many of these are accompanied by “coming soon” badges.
It’s clear Daydream VR doesn’t yet have the same content options as its rivals. Gazing at 360-degree photos and immersive YouTube shows may be engaging to start with but Google will need more app developers to step up and create content if Daydream VR is to become a serious platform. Rivals such as Samsung’s Gear VR have considerably more experiences available.
At the present time, Gear VR also supports more phones than Daydream. Samsung’s platform is available to owners of a wide range of its recent high-end handsets while Daydream works with just the Pixel and Pixel XL, phones that start at $649 and are only available for pre-order today. Daydream will be present in many of next year’s Android 7.0 handsets but until they launch the platform is unlikely to see much serious use.
The Daydream View headset will be available from this November from the Google Store and select retail partners for a comparatively low $79. It will be available for pre-order from October 20 in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Australia. Three colours will be available, Slate, Snow and Crimson, fulfilling Google’s aim of choice and customisation being an important part of its fledgling VR platform.
