Google have launched WebVR support for the Android platform via the Chrome browser opening up this exciting platform to Android mobile VR users on Cardboard and Daydream users.
The combination of immersive and web technologies is one of the most promising and exciting prospects to arrive with VR’s most recent renaissance. The ability to deliver portable applications which automatically support any virtual reality headset is a powerful idea and the initiative is gaining good traction with experimental builds of Firefox and Chrome for desktop featuring WebVR, a set of APIs designed to power browser-based VR experiences, available for some time now.
Google has now taken the next step in driving that initiative with the release of WebVR for Chrome on the company’s mobile Android operating system. This is course means that developers can target a wide array of potential VR devices (including Cardboard and Daydream compatible devices) on the world’s largest mobile operating system.
Chrome 56 for Android is now available for developers wishing to stretch their WebVR legs and can gain access to the new WebVR and GamePad API extensions by signing up for an Origin Trial which they can do by heading here. Building web apps including the WebVR extensions then enables access to a user’s position and orientation information and as well as attached gamepads and controllers. The GamePad API also includes support for the Daydream controller, which ships alongside Daydream View headset powered by Google’s Android integrated VR platform.
If you want to learn more about developing VR apps for the web, head over to the WebVR developer site here where you’ll find tutorials to get you started, and you can chat to like-minded folk about it all by joining the WebVR Slack channel here.