Vicarious announced that its social VR content sharing platform is now available on Google Daydream. The company has plans to launch Vicarious apps for other VR platforms “in the coming weeks and months.”
Vicarious allows you to combine 2D and 360-degree photos, audio recordings, traditional videos, and text overlays to create VR experiences that you can share with others. The founders of Vicarious set out to build a platform that lets anyone create compelling VR experiences, even if they don’t have access to fancy 360-cameras, or the skill set required to build a 3D environment for VR.
“As a practical matter, Vicarious is the only app that lets you create and share moments of your life in VR in a matter of seconds,” said JM Yujuico, Founder & CEO. “At scale, you should be able to jump into Vicarious and experience anyone’s unique human experience; actors, athletes, politicians, rock stars and see the world through their eyes.”
We’ve been waiting a while for Vicarious’ release. We first caught wind of the Vicarious platform in late 2015. Vicarious told Tom’s Hardware that its platform would launch in the second quarter of 2016 on Google Cardboard and Gear VR. By the time Q2 2016 rolled in, Gear VR had a solid foothold on the market, although Google’s Cardboard platform was on its way out. Cardboard still exists today, but with the announcement of Daydream at Google I/O 2016, the writing was on the wall for the platform to fade away. Google’s VR future clearly lies with the Daydream platform.
Around the same time as Google’s Daydream announcement, Vicarious made a call for alpha testers to help the company improve the Vicarious platform. The company had a working version of the Vicarious platform, but it wasn’t at all satisfied with the function and appearance. Vicarious wanted alpha testers who would help shape the platform for the eventual consumer release. Since launching the alpha test of the platform, Vicarious kept a low profile (its last blog post was August 2016) and silently improved its product. The company is now ready to let everyone experience the Vicarious platform.
Vicarious is available now for Daydream-ready smartphones, but you don’t need a Daydream VR HMD to use it. Vicarious for Daydream is a hybrid app that offers 2D and VR modes. If you don’t have an HMD, you can view Vicarious experiences the same way you would watch a 360-degree video or view a 360-degree image with your smartphone.
You can find the Vicarious Daydream app in the Google Play store.
