We love gaming and have found virtual reality (VR) is a great way to have some fun and escape the real world for a little while. This article covers our favorite VR apps for iPhone. Some of these picks are VR games, while others showcase 360-degree movies and videos within a virtual space.
Most of the other rollercoaster iPhone VR apps feature numerous similar rollercoaster tracks. Roller Coaster VR Theme Park boasts a good variety of both rollercoaster styles and different types of theme park rides like spinning teacups, a Ferris wheel, and even bumper cars.
Each ride is viewable in both non-VR phone mode and proper VR with Google Cardboard. While only a few of the 34 rides are free, it only costs $1.99 to unlock additional ones or $4.99 to unlock everything. The list of free rides also randomly rotates daily.
What We Don’t Like
-
You need to sign up for a separate account for online functionality.
-
Inability to explore the village feels like a missed opportunity.
-
Hasn’t been updated in years.
Initially launching on iPhone way back in 2012, Solitaire Zen was the first Solitaire video game to support VR in Apple’s App Store.
Solitaire Zen allows players to play the classic card game in a virtual space that resembles a quiet European village. The actual card gameplay is as solid as other non-VR card game apps, and the environment’s sound and visuals are genuinely relaxing.
The only real downside of Solitaire Zen is its requirement to create a new account with the developers, Naquatic, before participating in online leaderboards and earning achievements. However, the offline solo Solitaire experience is immediately available to play as soon as you open the app.
What We Like
-
Good basic character and clothes customization options.
-
Voice chat works really well in the virtual space.
-
Updates frequently with fixes and new features.
What We Don’t Like
-
The welcome tutorial is way too long and confusing.
-
The numerous menus take a while to get used to.
-
Parents will want to disable voice chat for children as the conversations are very adult.
Rec Room is an impressive social communications app that lets users interact within 3D virtual spaces with voice chat, text chat, or physical gestures. While simplistic in design, user avatars can be fully customized while moving around the virtual areas. Participating in games can be done as soon as you complete the super-long tutorial.
You can speed through Rec Room’s tutorial by simply running from room to room. You don’t need to complete any of the tasks the voiceover asks you to do.
Impressively, Rec Room is also available on Quest, Rift, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, and PC, and supports full cross-play between all versions. It makes it much easier to find friends who already have access to the free-to-play title.
Surprisingly, the iPhone version doesn’t support VR headsets and requires the camera to be controlled by the on-screen buttons, so it isn’t as immersive as it could be. Hopefully, with Rec Room already being on Quest, they will add such support in a future update.
Something else to watch out for is the lack of voice chat moderation in the virtual spaces. You’ll likely hear drug and sexual references, swearing, and insults within minutes of visiting a gathering, so parents may want to disable this feature when setting it up for their children.
What We Like
-
The iPhone VR functionality works within the same YouTube app you probably already use.
-
Large library of virtual reality videos and a good variety of genres.
-
Most VR videos can be viewed vertically and horizontally.
What We Don’t Like
-
Location of video controls changes depending on how you’re watching a video.
-
If you don’t have YouTube Premium, the video ads and popups will get annoying very quickly.
One of the best iPhone apps for viewing virtual reality content is the main YouTube app you probably already have installed and use daily. YouTube mixes in VR videos with all of its other videos, but they can typically be found by performing a basic search and including either VR or 360 in the search phrase.
YouTube curates a Virtual Reality channel that includes VR videos from several professional creators and brands. Subscribing to this channel is the easiest way to find high-quality VR videos on YouTube.
You can watch VR videos on YouTube by simply moving your iPhone around to view different parts of the 360-degree virtual space, not dissimilar to how you play Pokemon Go.
Thanks for letting us know!
Subscribe
Tell us why!
Other
Not enough details
Hard to understand
