Google Is Shuttering the Expeditions App, but Its VR Field Trips Aren’t Going Away For Good

Another one of Google’svirtual reality venturesis biting the dust . The party suppose it’sending supportfor its VR educational app , expedition , next twelvemonth , though it ’ll fare far better than Google ’s shutteredDaydream VR platform . or else of discontinuing Expeditions all , Google ’s folding many of the app ’s function into its Arts & Culture app .

It feels like a life-time ago when every tech company and its mother was jumping on the VR bandwagon , but then again 2020 has made fourth dimension feel like one big soupy mess . Google launched Expeditionsin 2015for itsCardboard VRheadset , a crap - bum VR smartphone adapter made out of real cardboard , and marketed the app as a schoolroom aide for “ virtual field trip-up ” long before covid-19 was a affair .

Google articulate in ablog poston Friday that it will no longer support the Expeditions app and plans to remove it from iOS and Android app stores after June 30 , 2021 . Many of the app ’s virtual tours will migrate to Google ’s Arts & Culture app , according to the companionship ’s conductor of education program management , Jennifer Holland . She framed the decision as a reaction to the coronavirus pandemic , which has pushed many workplaces and schools online around the world .

Google is migrating many of the functions of its virtual reality field trip app Expeditions to its Arts & Culture app, which the woman pictured above is using to interact with exhibits at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin.

“ As schools around the world reimagine educational activity from the ground up for a hybrid world , we ’ve also been thinking deeply about how to adjust our tools to meet the moment and at the same time establish for the future , ” Holland write . “ We ’ve hear and agnise that immersive experience with VR headset are not always accessible to all learners and even more so this yr , as the modulation to hybrid learning has present challenge for schools to effectively use Expeditions . ”

Google Arts & Culture is already home to pot of other cracking VR and AR experiences ( like this tool forturning your selfieinto a famous fine art objet d’art ) as well as museum collections from more than 2,000 cultural institution , so it seems a lifelike fit for Expeditions ’ repertory . you may use the Cardboard watcher for some of the content on the Arts & Culture app , but do n’t be surprised if that option quietly disappears eventually . Google ’s been outstrip itself from VR for a while now . It pulled the plug on its Daydream headset last year andopen - sourcedthe software behind Cardboard not long after that . With Expeditions now on the chopping block too , Google ’s deal - basement headset does n’t seem long for this world .

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