The Age of Virtual Reality has begun. It may have started slow but this 2016, more VR products, games, and services will enter the virtual realm. It hasn’t been two years since Oculus and Samsung teamed up to make the Gear VR and produce games. Soon after, other companies followed and tried to come up with their own VR headsets. We’ve seen the likes of the Homido, Speck Pocket VR, Carl Zeiss VR One, and the popular and very affordable Google Cardboard.
HTC announced last year that it’s joining the bandwagon with the Vive VR headset. In partnership with Valve, HTC sent out Vive headsets to developers for free and promised that dev kit will be out January this year before the April public launch which is already delayed. HTC went on to open up pre-order even if without a marked price but we speculated it could be over a thousand dollars. (It’s $799!)
The VR device started shipping to some customers a couple of days ago and our friends over at SlashGear were lucky to receive a unit and immediately did an extensive HTC Vive Review.
Just like any wearable or VR headset, the HTC Vive needs a companion app to work. HTC has developed and released the Vive Phone Companion app that is now live on the Google Play Store. The app allows you to connect your smartphone to the VR headset so you can still receive notifications while you’re exploring the virtual world.
If wearables need apps or connectivity to work with a phone, the HTC Vive also needs a special app to bring notifications and alerts for upcoming events on your calendar, text messages, or incoming calls. You sure don’t want to miss any important message so while enjoying whatever VR games or videos on the screen, set up the device to accept messages. You have the option to read them immediately or respond to a missed call. Feel free to contact the sender or caller or send quick replies if necessary.
Simply put, this app keeps you notified while you are busy exploring virtual reality. Who knows how many hours you’d stay immersed in that “world”? You still need to be connected to your family and friends so do yourself a favor and don’t disconnect the app and yes, yourself from the real world.
Download HTC Vive Phone Companion from the Google Play Store
VIA: SlashGear
