spatialcomputing.info

VRChat, the popular social VR platform, announced that flatscreen ports for both Android and iOS are currently in development.

The company says in a developer blog that while there’s still no release date on the books, the Android version has already been used by team members to attend large meetings.

Additionally, the Android version will support any world or avatar that works on Meta Quest, since the standalone also runs Android.

Here’s a quick look at an early build, which the studio stresses isn’t a final version:

VRChat on Android Mobile will only be available to VRChat Plus subscribers, the studio says, offering it as a beta to polish UI and UX before a full public launch. Beta access is expected to arrive to VRChat Plus members in three to four months. The full public launch on Google Play is expected in three to six months after the beta release, the studio says.

VRChat on iOS however is expected later, with more details to follow. The studio says it will be more complex, as content will need to be rebuilt for the iOS platform since it uses a different graphics framework.

The addition of iOS support is also slated to fracture VRChat worlds into three distinct supported platforms instead of the previous two, which for now includes PC and Quest. The studio maintains the situation is “[n]ot ideal”.

VRChat isn’t the first social VR app to offer flatscreen versions on mobile. Competitor Rec Room offers the widest network of supported devices, which in addition to VR support on Quest, PSVR and SteamVR headsets also includes flatscreen support for iOS, Android, Xbox, and PS4/PS5.

Meta’s own Horizon Worlds platform is also set to launch on non-Quest devices sometime soon, which will include both the Web and mobile versions.