Google Daydream doesn’t work on the Galaxy S8 because of course it doesn’t

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are an impressive set of smartphones, and it’s very clear that Samsung designed them with VR capabilities in mind. However, Samsung’s vision for VR is for its own Gear VR system, which is why competing options like Google Daydream don’t work…

VRHeads tried to install Daydream on the S8, only to find an error message appearing on the device. It could be part of an agreement that Samsung has it disabled, or it could be that the company just didn’t enable support. However, I’d say it’s most likely that Samsung just didn’t want a competing platform on their device, because why would they?

Google’s Daydream VR platform, which debuted with the Pixel smartphones, runs through the Daydream View headset. The beauty of that system is while it offers one of the best mobile VR experiences available today, it isn’t limited to just one line of phones, or even just super expensive ones. Daydream runs on the high-end Pixel, but also on the affordable ZTE Axon 7, among several others.

Samsung’s Gear VR, on the other hand, is limited to Samsung’s newer S-series and Note-series smartphones. Despite that, Gear VR is packed with excellent content from a variety of sources, and the new addition of the controller is a big win if you ask me, not to mention the fact that every S8 pre-order comes with a free Gear VR headset…

Of course, if you really want to use Daydream on the S8 or S8+, you’ll be able to, it’s just not worth the effort, at least if you ask me…