Google Daydream

Google's soft-fabric VR headset for Pixels, dropped after three years

Shut down
19902026

Google Daydream was the virtual reality platform for Android phones that Google announced in May 2016 and launched with the $79 Daydream View headset on 10 November 2016: a fabric visor and a small remote, with certified "Daydream-ready" phones from Google, Samsung, Motorola and others. It never reached a mass audience. Google discontinued the headset on 15 October 2019, when the Pixel 4 dropped support, and removed Daydream from Android 11 in 2020.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2016
  2. 18 May 2016 Feature
    Daydream is announced at I/O

    A VR mode in Android and a certification for phones.

  3. 10 November 2016 Launch
    Daydream View ships

    $79, in soft grey fabric, alongside the first Pixel.

  4. 2017
  5. 25 January 2017 Feature
    Open to all developers

    The store opens beyond Google's launch partners.

  6. 4 October 2017 Version
    The second Daydream View

    $99, with better lenses.

  7. 2018
  8. 4 May 2018 Feature
    Lenovo Mirage Solo

    A standalone Daydream headset with positional tracking, $399.

  9. 2019
  10. 15 October 2019 Shutdown
    Discontinued with the Pixel 4

    "Clear limitations" and no broad adoption; the View is dropped.

  11. 2020
  12. October 2020 Shutdown
    Android 11 removes Daydream

    The apps stop working on new software.

The site through time

Browse arvr.google.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2016 2017 2018 2019 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Google 2016–2019 Founded Built by Google's VR group under Clay Bavor; headsets by Google and Lenovo

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: On 15 October 2019, launching the Pixel 4 without Daydream support, Google said it was discontinuing the Daydream View headset and no longer certifying new phones, citing "clear limitations" of phone VR and a lack of broad adoption. Android 11 removed Daydream support in 2020, and the platform's apps stopped working on new software.

Our analysis: Daydream was the sensible version of phone VR, with a comfortable headset, a controller and a curated store, and it still asked people to lock their phone into a box for twenty minutes to do less than a Quest could. Google's own numbers said usage was low, phone makers stopped bothering to certify handsets, and Google, which had never sold hardware it did not want to make, walked away the moment the standalone future arrived.

History [edit]

Cardboard, grown up

Google announced Daydream at I/O on 18 May 2016 as the successor to Cardboard: a VR mode built into Android Nougat, a specification for "Daydream-ready" phones with fast screens and low latency, a reference headset and a motion controller, and a store of proper apps. Clay Bavor, who ran Google's VR group, presented it as VR for everyone with a good phone. The Daydream View shipped on 10 November 2016 for $79, alongside the first Pixel: a headset covered in soft grey fabric that looked like a piece of clothing, with a lens holder you dropped the phone into and a small remote with a touchpad. Reviewers liked the comfort and the price and noted the same limitation Cardboard had, that a phone strapped to your face got hot and offered only head-turning, not movement.

Waiting for phones

Daydream needed phone makers to certify handsets, and they did so slowly: the Pixel and Moto Z at first, then Samsung's Galaxy S8 in 2017 after months of delay, ZTE, Asus, Huawei and LG. Google opened the platform to all developers in January 2017 and shipped a second, $99 View in October 2017. In 2018 the Lenovo Mirage Solo brought Daydream to a standalone headset with WorldSense positional tracking, an attempt to escape the phone entirely, at $399. None of it produced an audience: Google later said users were opening Daydream rarely, and it stopped selling the View in some markets during 2019.

The Pixel 4

On 15 October 2019, announcing the Pixel 4, Google confirmed the new phone would not support Daydream and that it was discontinuing the Daydream View headset, saying it had "noticed some clear limitations" of smartphone VR and had "not seen the broad consumer or developer adoption we had hoped for". The Daydream app kept working on older phones until Android 11 removed the platform in 2020. Three weeks after the Pixel 4 announcement, Google open-sourced Cardboard and left phone VR altogether.

The domain today

arvr.google.com/daydream/ redirects to a Google support page explaining that Daydream is no longer supported.

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Sources [edit]

  1. Google announces Daydream, a VR platform for Android The Verge 18 May 2016 [archived]
  2. Daydream View: coming to stores November 10th Google 1 November 2016 [archived]
  3. Google Daydream View review The Verge 10 November 2016 [archived]
  4. Google is discontinuing Daydream View and the Pixel 4 will not support it The Verge 15 October 2019 [archived]
  5. Android 11 drops support for Google Daydream VR The Verge 2 October 2020 [archived]

Last verified: 15 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).