--- description: Google ended its annual I/O developer conference keynote with the peculiar announcement that it would be giving all attendees a piece of cardboard. It’s in... title: Google Cardboard App Is Supposed to Mimic Virtual Reality image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c6be126c043fbd1/69869947361760fb5590ccc8/screen-shot-2014-06-25-at-3-59-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Google](/tag/google/) ## Google Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Google Just Released Its Most Low-Tech Product Ever by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 25, 2014 7:41 PM CUT  Google Cardboard Google CardboardGoogle by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 25, 2014 7:41 PM CUT Google ended its annual I/O developer conference keynote with the peculiar announcement that it would be giving all attendees a piece of cardboard. It’s in support of a new virtual reality app for Android phones, appropriately called Cardboard, that Google says will allow people to “experience virtual reality in a simple, fun and inexpensive way.” What that means is you boot up this app on your phone, stick your phone in a piece of actual cardboard, cut out some eye sockets in said cardboard, then stick your face in the low-tech device. You may recall this application from the time your parents let you play with a refrigerator box when you were five. The app, which seems to be a [real thing](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.samples.apps.cardboarddemo "undefined"), includes the ability to look at popular Google services such as YouTube and Google Earth in a VR environment. Google has even offered some handy instructions for how to engineer your own cardboard mask. While the competing Oculus Rift virtual reality device costs $350, Google says a Cardboard headset is absolutely free if you happen to have an [extra large pizza box lying](https://developers.google.com/cardboard/ "undefined") around. If this seems to ridiculous to be real, remember that an app that does nothing except send people the word “Yo” was recently one of the [top programs ](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/94dd72da-f88f-11e3-815f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz35VCmd000 "undefined")in Apple’s App Store. One man’s trash is another man’s next billion-dollar project. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2923531/google-cardboard-app/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2923531/google-cardboard-app/"},"headline":"Google Just Released Its Most Low-Tech Product Ever","datePublished":"2014-06-25T19:41:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:39.094Z","description":"Google ended its annual I/O developer conference keynote with the peculiar announcement that it would be giving all attendees a piece of cardboard. It’s in...","url":"https://time.com/2923531/google-cardboard-app/","keywords":["Google","Tech","Oculus Rift","Virtual Reality"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c6be126c043fbd1/69869947361760fb5590ccc8/screen-shot-2014-06-25-at-3-59-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c6be126c043fbd1/69869947361760fb5590ccc8/screen-shot-2014-06-25-at-3-59-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Google Cardboard","caption":"Google Cardboard","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/google/","name":"Google"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2923531/google-cardboard-app/","name":"Google Just Released Its Most Low-Tech Product Ever"}}]}] ```