A screenshot of Samsung PhoneCast VR Labs, showing a tappable interface.
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PhoneCast lets you play 2D Android apps in virtual reality on Gear VR

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

In case you don’t have enough things to do in virtual reality, you can now run 2D-screen Android applications within virtual reality on the Samsung Gear VR, thanks to a new version of Samsung’s PhoneCast app debuting today.

The app works on the Samsung Gear VR headset, which uses your mobile phone to give you a VR experience. The PhoneCast app’s Labs enables you to run games and other apps in VR, including livestreaming apps that let you stream videos to the giant virtual screen in VR. It creates a 2D window within your VR environment. Within that window, you can run Android apps.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.