Daydream, Google’s high-quality virtual reality platform for Android, is here — and so is the search giant’s headset, Daydream View.

The platform is Google’s strongest attempt yet at muscling into a market that competitors like Facebook’s Oculus, HTC’s Vive, and others have already begun to corner. And more broadly speaking, it’s a show of confidence in a burgeoning medium that some say has the potential to upend entire industries.

Wondering what’s up with Daydream? Not to worry. We’ve rounded up all the pertinent details and fresh-off-the-press news for your perusal. Bookmark our handy guide to Google’s VR and never wonder again about which phones and headsets support it, or which apps are debuting on it.

At Google I/O 2017, the search giant announced a new category of Daydream devices: Stand-alone VR headsets. They run Daydream 2.0 Euphrates, the upcoming version of Google’s Daydream platform.

Stand-alone Daydream headsets are entirely self-contained, Google said, thanks to new WorldSense positional tracking, which uses two wide-angle cameras to track all objects within the environment to build a virtual “blueprint.” The company partnered with Qualcomm on hardware that doesn’t require any external sensors.

That’s not the only major change coming with Daydream 2.0 Euphrates. It includes a new VR window manager that supports non-touchscreen devices — the operating system interface is accessible in VR. There’s a new cascading list of content consisting of media, app, games, and more in horizontal tiles. And a new dashboard will allow users to send their experience to Chromecast, take screenshots, and capture video.

“These devices build on what’s already great about smartphone-based VR, and make the experience even easier and more comfortable with WorldSense,” Google explained.

A new rendering technique — named Project Seurot, after the French pointillist painter — aims to bring desktop-grade graphics to Daydream 2.0 headsets. It’s able to compress a scene with 50 million polygons to 72,000 with little-to-no loss in quality, but it’s optional — Daydream developers who don’t build it into their apps and games won’t see a benefit.

The new headsets are fully compatible with Daydream’s other new component: Visual Positioning Service (VPS). Using the depth-sensing IR Tango sensors on phones like the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, Google-built software can map indoor locations so that devices can understand their position in real time.

The Daydream View is Google’s virtual reality headset, in which Daydream-ready phones can sit to provide a VR experience. The first Daydream-ready phone was the Google Pixel, but others have followed suit.

The whole Daydream setup is similar to Samsung’s Gear VR system, only Google’s Daydream View headset is not locked to specific phones from a specific manufacturer. Users simply open the front flap and insert their compatible Android phone. That makes the headset extremely inexpensive when compared to the PC-based Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, as the smartphone provides all of the hardware necessary for an engulfing VR experience.

Not only that, but users can now replace the Daydream View’s facepad, or the part of the headset that rests against your face. That’s helpful for those that use the headset a lot, and means you can do away with your old and dirty facepads without having to replace the entire headset. The facepad costs $15, and can be bought from the Google Store.

The design of the Daydream View is built around one thing — comfort. And, it’s the byproduct of a collaboration between Google and a number of clothing manufacturers. The end result is a product featuring soft fabrics and a 30 percent lower weight than competing products on the market. This should be great on the phone as well, preventing possible scratches on the screen.

On top of that, customers can also wear the headset over their glasses. There are also no wires getting in the way, as the headset connects to the compatible Android phone wirelessly. Three color variations are available: Slate, Snow, and Crimson.

In addition to the headset, there’s also the Daydream View controller. It is small, sporting rounded edges and only two buttons. The peripheral includes motion sensors so that users can interact with the virtual environment, such as draw, shoot aliens, and so on. This controller can be stored in the headset itself when not in use thanks to a little snap-based compartment built into the headset’s flap.

The headset is available on the Google Store as well as specific retailers. In the U.S., it will cost $79 and will be available at Verizon and Best Buy. In Canada, the headset will cost $99 and will go on sale at Bell, Rogers, Telus, and Best Buy. In the U.K., you can grab a Daydream at EE and Carphone Warehouse for 69 pounds. In Germany, it costs 69 euros and is only available at Deutsche Telekom, and in Australia, it will set you back $119, but you can grab it at Telstra and JB Hi-Fi.

You can read our review of Daydream View here.

Details about just which headsets will support Daydream have been surprisingly hard to come by, but leaks and press releases have sprouted here and there. You can, of course, get Google’s Daydream View headset, but third-parties will make some, too.

Companies like HTC and LG will sell their own headsets — bundled, of course, with Daydream’s proprietary remote — individually. They don’t necessarily conform to a standard, but Bavor said there are a number of elements that need to be “just right” when creating a handset, including optics, materials, and overall comfort.

Here are the Daydream-compatible headsets that have been announced so far:

Not all Android phones are compatible with the Daydream platform. Rather, said Google’s Clay Bavor at the company’s developer conference in May 2016, they have to undergo individual certification. Only devices with hardware that meets a very specific, Google-determined criteria are eligible to support Daydream officially.

The company made those requirements public in the latest Compatibility Definition Document for Android, the document which specifies the minimum hardware specifications for the most recent version of Android. In order to achieve Daydream certification, devices must include a 1080p screen (“strongly recommended” to be higher) measuring between 4.7 inches and 6 inches diagonally. They must support a refresh rate of at least 60 Hz and a “low-persistence” mode. And they must have at least two physical cores, one of which must be assigned exclusively to the VR app.

Huawei’s Nexus 6P is a good example. The 6P, one of the first smartphones said to qualify for Daydream, sports a 5.7-inch AMOLED display with a 2560 × 1440 pixel resolution, a 12.3-megapixel camera on the back, an 8-megapixel camera on the front, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor clocked at 2GHz, 3GB of LPDDR4 memory, and storage ranging from 32GB to 128GB. It’s a safe bet that future Daydream phones will have to meet, if not exceed, the combined processing power of that silicon.

Google has sifted Daydream-compatible smartphones into one of two categories: Daydream-ready and Daydream-compatible. The former includes forthcoming smartphones that pack the necessary “new sensors” and “low persistence displays” required. The latter comprises handsets that may be slated to receive full or partial Daydream support in the future despite their hardware shortcomings.

In July 2017, Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that a total of 11 smartphone handsets featuring Daydream support will be available to consumers by the end of the year.

Here’s a list of smartphones that have either been confirmed or rumored as Daydream-compatible:

At Google’s I/O developer conference in May, LG announced that one of its future smartphones would support Daydream. Unfortunately, it didn’t say which.

It could be the V30. Rumor has it LG’s next flagship phone will boast an OLED screen, a secondary “ticker” display, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 — the same processor in the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. High-quality audio, a series signature, seems likely, as does 6GB of RAM.

But it’s all speculation for now. We’re expecting to learn more this fall, when LG’s expected to take the wraps off the V30.

Find out more here.

Just which smartphones qualify as “Daydream-ready” is a difficult proposition. Other than the aforementioned Nexus 6P, Google hasn’t specified which, if any, other handsets are due for a Daydream upgrade. That said, one can speculate.

The Daydream-compatible phones announced so far seem to share a few specifications in common: they all pack Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 or better, paired at a minimum with 4GB of RAM; all sport AMOLED screens; and all due to receive upgrades to Android 7.0 Nougat.

It has also been said that no “current” smartphones would receive retroactive Daydream-ready certification, but given the abundance of hardware that falls just short of meeting the platform’s minimum requirements — namely, Lenovo’s Moto Z and Moto Z Force and the OnePlus 3 — it’s not inconceivable that Google will end up bending the rules.

Google said the latest version of its Android mobile operating system, Android Nougat, is optimized for Daydream applications — which is to say that it’s fine-tuned for “performance” and “responsiveness.” Google said it targeted a latency of under 20 milliseconds and designed an intuitive user interface with notifications that lays “intuitively” atop VR apps and games.

Android Nougat also sports a Samsung Gear VR-like home screen, called Daydream Home, that provides access to a suite of specially designed apps. There’s a VR version of Google Play, plus Google’s Street View, Google Play Movies, and Google Photos. And more are on the way.

Daydream, at its core, is a software platform for virtual reality — think of it as common ground for app developers and Google’s hardware partners. It’s the spiritual successor to Google’s debut VR effort, Google Cardboard, but far more holistic in scope — Cardboard supports both iOS and Android devices, primarily delivers low-resolution apps and videos, and is largely intended for use with an inexpensive plastic or cardboard headset. Daydream, by contrast, is targeting the enthusiast market.

Fundamentally, Daydream consists of three components: a headset, a controller, and software like apps and games.

The standardized remote control bares a passing resemblance to a Nintendo Wii remote, and that’s no accident — motion controls are the highlight here. It’s relatively simple hardware by all appearances: the Daydream remote sports a few buttons, a touchpad, and a basic motion sensor. But it’s immensely powerful in the virtual world, providing the primary means of navigation in menus. Moving about lists and carousels is accomplished with an intuitive combination of flicks, swipes, and taps, mechanics that extend to Daydream apps and games. At Google’s developer conference in May, the company demonstrated a “breakfast simulator” that tasked players with flipping virtual pancakes and casting a fishing rod.

Article originally published during Google I/O 2016. Christian de Looper, Kevin Parrish, and others have contributed to this post. Updated on 07-25-2017 by Brad Jones: Added comments from Google CEO Sunday Pichai pledging expanded Daydream handset support by the end of 2017.