Google Continues to Push the Boundaries of Mobile Platforms

Google’s Android Experiments series has been fun to watch, and the latest app to come out of the company’s obsession with playful innovation is no disappointment to Android app developers. The app, Sprayscape, is essentially a twist on a VR app, allowing users to create bizarre 3D collages out of the things around them. It’s almost like spray-painting with real life surroundings. User creations are shared via links, and while they serve no real purpose aside from being fun it’s positive to see a major player like Google running with whimsical ideas. Play is important, even for Android app developers.

VR was a major trend in the past year, and developers predict that 2017 will be the year that VR app development goes mainstream. Google is clearly on board, and is even bundling VR headsets with their new Pixel phone, now available for pre-order. By making their latest headset soft, pastel, and simple, Google seems to be betting on VR as a chill at-home activity that could overtake standard television as a go-to entertainment option. The question for San Francisco app developers is: what will the content consumed via VR headsets look like?

The Sprayscape app is also encouraging considered along with all the other Android Experiments products, which include music production experiments, gesture-based games, games that exist within the notification bar, and apps that use the phone as a 3D controller for on-screen desktop apps. In the increasingly sterile, predictable world of mobile tech, experiments like these come as a breath of fresh air. Continued development of the Android platform by Google has the potential to make Android a viable option for the upscale market generally dominated by Apple in the US. That said, Google seems more concerned with expanding worldwide, with many of their biggest apps developed in the past year aimed subtly at emerging markets like India.