Android 11 officially kills support for Google’s Daydream VR platform

Over the last few years, Google’s Daydream VR has quietly receded from the spotlight, with the platform being quietly discontinued for new devices late last year. Now, we’re learning that Daydream App support will officially end with Android 11 — to nobody’s real surprise.

Google shared the news on a support page (via AndroidPolice):

Thank you for using Daydream View. The Daydream VR app is no longer supported by Google and may not work properly on some devices running Android 11 or later. Many of the third-party apps and experiences within Daydream may still be available as standalone apps in the Google Play store. We don’t expect users to lose account information or functionality for third-party apps as a result of Daydream no longer being supported by Google.

To be fair, the writing was on the wall, and has been since last year’s Made by Google event. When Google launched the Pixel 4, it didn’t feature support for the Daydream VR platform. Meanwhile, Google also stopped selling the Daydream View VR headset.

At the time, Google explained that there are some clear limitations with smartphone VR. “Most notably, asking people to put their phone in a headset and lose access to the apps they use throughout the day causes immense friction,” Google said.

The search giant went on to say that it’s more invested in creating immersive AR experiences, including Live View for Google Maps. Speaking of which, a number of new phones recently added support for Google Play Services for AR, allowing these devices to experience next-level AR features.

If you’re really intrigued by VR, Oculus recently introduced a dedicated VR headset that comes equipped with a Snapdragon XR2 and 90Hz refresh rate for $299. Otherwise, you can say goodbye to Daydream VR once and for all, although at this point I doubt many people will miss it. Don’t count on unofficial hacks getting it up and running again on Android 11, because even attempting to build the VR components of AOSP will prevent an Android 11 build from booting, according to XDA Recognized Developer phhusson.

The post Android 11 officially kills support for Google’s Daydream VR platform appeared first on xda-developers.