Android N to bring native VR mode

Android N is on the way, as is obvious by way of Google’s Android N Developer Preview, and we’ve already had a look at the “clear all” in the recents menu that eliminates one headache of Google’s basic Android offering. Today, we’re back to take a look at another Android N feature that many users will find exciting. That new feature is a native VR mode, confirmed by way of source code within Android N.

Android N’s VR mode can be seen by way of screenshots obtained by the folks over at Ars Technica, and they show something called “VR Helper Services,” a feature designed to run alongside of VR within Android N. “It looks like this will work similarly to the ‘Notification Access’ screen (used by Android Wear to bring notifications to a smartwatch) — the VR helper services screen will show a list of apps that plug into this API, and users can allow or deny the permission,” the source says.

There’s no word on what this new native VR mode in Android N will do, but we presume that VR will be able to draw on information already obtained by the apps you use on a regular basis, presumably for activities such as posting your winning game stats on social media sites like Google+ and Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., as well as sending emails (yes, I recently responded to an email in VR using Samsung’s own VR web browser in Gear VR). VR Helper would allow you to do most of (if not all) the things you do now, but in virtual reality.

We still must recommend that you take this with a grain of salt, seeing that some things have existed in developer previews that didn’t make their way into the final version. But, at the same time, with Google having launched its Cardboard VR headset, with the company expanding Cardboard content at YouTube, its own video site, and with rumors from the Wall Street Journal that Google intends to launch a phone-free virtual reality headset to match something akin to LG’s 360 VR headset, for example, we have no doubt that VR is the future. And, as Samsung always says in its presentations, the future is now.

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