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Google Cardboard getting spatial audio
July 30, 2025
Good news for Cardboard app developers and the rest of us as well. Today on their officialdevelopers blog, Google announced that they’re bringing spatial audio capabilities to the Cardboard SDK. This looks to make virtual reality even more immersive on the company’s playful little VR heardset.
Spatial audio is basically the ability for apps to replicate the way we hear sounds in everyday life. Stereo is essentially a crude attempt at spatial audio which takes into consideration the simple actuality that when we hear something primarily in our left ear, we assume the thing making the sound is over to our left.
However, there is far more information in sound than just left and right. Our ears are fine-tuned detectors that relay tons of subtle data to the brain for interpretation. Bringing spatial audio to the table will let Cardboard devs mimic some of these more nuanced elements. As Nathan Martz, product manager with Google Cardboard, describes it:
Martz says that this SDK is optimized for mobile CPUs and is designed to make as little impact on processing as possible. If you want to see (or rather, hear) spatial audio in action, Google has created asample appfor developer reference. For more detail, head over to theCardboard developers sitefor the full documentation.
What are your thoughts regarding spatial audio on Cardboard? Let us know in the comments below!
Next:7 best Google Cardboard VR apps and games
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