Despite helping millions of people try VR, phone-based VR is all but dead, with Google shutting down Daydream and Samsung's Gear VR efforts failing to take off
Adi Robertson / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
The end of phone-based VR was a slow fade rather than a sudden collapse. In May 2019, Google signaled the platform's shakiness when it announced that the Pixel 3a and 3a XL would not support Daydream, and by mid-October the Pixel 4 launched without Daydream support entirely as Google stopped selling the viewer and began phasing out the platform.
This article marks the formal obituary: despite putting VR in front of millions of people through Cardboard and Daydream, and despite Samsung's parallel Gear VR push failing to gain traction, the phone-as-headset category is effectively dead. The arc traces back further — Google had already killed an effort to build a high-end standalone headset on a non-Android OS back in 2016 (that shutdown), showing its VR ambitions narrowing for years.
First-order effects
- Google stops selling the Daydream View and phases out the platform, leaving existing Daydream users with hardware whose software future is frozen; Pixel 4 buyers lose any built-in VR option.
- Samsung's Gear VR, already failing to take off, loses its last plausible path to relevance now that Android's own platform owner has exited phone-based VR.
Second-order effects
- App developers who built for Daydream and Gear VR face a dead distribution channel, pushing whatever survives of mobile VR investment toward Google's remaining property — Cardboard — which Google open-sourced weeks later (open sourcing the Cardboard software).
- With both Google and Samsung out, the phone-VR accessory market collapses, removing the low-cost entry tier that had introduced millions of people to VR.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, consumer VR consolidates around dedicated headsets rather than phone add-ons, with Google's own history — from the 2016 standalone shutdown to Daydream's death — showing even the largest platforms unwilling to sustain hardware categories without traction.
- The failure of two flagship phone makers to make phone-based VR stick sets a cautionary precedent for platform owners: reach alone (millions of users exposed) does not convert into a sustainable ecosystem without committed content and hardware investment.
The trend: Consumer VR is consolidating away from phone-based accessories toward dedicated headsets, as Google and Samsung abandon the entry-level tier that once introduced millions to the medium.