You don’t need to spend hundreds of pounds on an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive headset to give virtual reality a try. The Android or iPhone handset in your pocket is a VR device in its own right too, especially when paired with a sub-£20 Google Cardboard headset that uses your phone as its screen and works with both Android and iOS.
If you’re getting started with VR on your smartphone, here are 10 of the best apps to explore. They’re regular Android and iOS apps rather than ones requiring Samsung’s Gear VR mobile headset – that’s a separate roundup in its own right for the future.
Note, the recently-launched Guardian VR Apps 2020 (Android / iOS) is not included in this roundup for reasons of fairness, but it’s worth a look: currently, it has the Guardian’s first VR film, 6×9, which tells the story of the psychological damage of extreme isolation.
VR is a growing platform. The proliferation of headsets like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Note 10 VR Headset, PlayStation VR, and others have solidified the platform’s popularity. However, none of them can even come close to the affordability of Google Cardboard. Anyone who has managed to pick one up over the last couple of years is no doubt looking for some awesome apps to put on there and use.
- YouTube VR
No introductions are necessary for this app: you already know what YouTube does. Its VR add-on for Android takes the experience up a notch by introducing VR playback.
You use the same YouTube app, but installing YouTube VR allows you to switch to “watch in VR” mode to enjoy cinematic viewing of your favorite YouTube videos. It’s designed to work with all major Android-supported VR headsets, but was created with the Cardboard and Google Daydream headsets in mind.
- Fulldive VR
Fulldive VR calls itself a VR navigation platform. What that means exactly is that the app will help you find and view tons of VR content from around the web. It has support for VR video from YouTube, a VR video player built-in, and even a VR browser to view online content. There is also a camera, photo gallery, and a market place to take VR images and surf for more VR apps and games. It’s definitely one of those VR apps that are worth checking out. It is also free to download. As it turns out, it’s also great for Daydream!
- InCell VR
VR gaming is still somewhat of a novelty at this stage, but that’s what makes InCell VR special. It’s an educational-themed game for kids who want to learn a bit about the human body.
The player takes the role of a human defender from the 2100s, shrunken down to fit inside the human body. Your role is to travel around the body while fighting off the flu virus and learning some human biology as you go. It’s fun to play, looks great, and sounds even better.
If you want to test it without VR, you can switch to the non-VR mode by holding your finger down on the screen.
- Titans of Space VR
How it works: Just put Google Cardboard on Android phones and enjoy a virtual reality tour through the solar system. The app is a scaled-down representation (1:1,000,000) of neighboring space, with 3D models, planets, and moons. The app is developed for various VR devices, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, and Google Cardboard in particular. The standard Titans of Space version have also been translated into 15 languages.
Cool features: Comparing sizes of planets and moons, the dynamic soundtrack, full control of pace and depth, menu in multiple languages, drift correction mode (as an experimental option so far), informational texts. Extra killer feature – 50 minutes of story narration.
