Google Cardboard vs Notes on Blindness VR
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Google Cardboard
Experience virtual reality on your iPhone. This app guides you through setting up a compatible viewer and offers initial immersive experiences to explore.
- VR viewer setup
- Introductory VR experiences
- iPhone compatibility
- Cardboard viewer integration
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Cardboard puts virtual reality on your iPhone. The Google Cardboard app helps you set up a Cardboard viewer and includes a few experiences to get you started. To fully enjoy this app you'll need a Cardboard viewer. Learn more and get your own Cardboard viewer at http://g.co/cardboard. Do not use this app while driving, walking, or otherwise by being distracted or disoriented from real world situations that prevent you from obeying traffic or safety laws.
Notes on Blindness VR
Experience a virtual reality journey into the world of John Hull, who became totally blind in 1983. This interactive non-fiction app uses original audio diary recordings and 3D animations to explore his cognitive and emotional experience of blindness.
- Virtual reality journey
- Interactive non-fiction
- Original audio diary recordings
- 3D animations
- Binaural audio
- Multi-language support
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Arte Experience presents: Notes On Blindness, a virtual reality journey into a world beyond sight. "A magical VR Experience" - Guardian "Mesmerizing" - Motherboard - Vice "Poetic and timeless" - Le Monde In 1983, after decades of steady deterioration, John Hull became totally blind. To help him make sense of the upheaval in his life, he began documenting his experiences on audio cassette. These original diary recordings form the basis of this six-part VR experience, an interactive non fiction using new forms of storytelling and gameplay mechanics to explore his cognitive and emotional experience of blindness. Each chapter will address a memory, a moment and a specific location from John’s audio diary, using binaural audio and real time 3D animations to create a fully immersive experience in a ‘world beyond sight’. Notes on Blindness VR is viewable with or without virtual reality headset (cardboard mode or smartphone mode). Notes on Blindness VR is available in English, French and German. Runs on iPhone 5 (or later) and Ipad 5 (or later). Requires iOS 9.3.4 or later versions. For full user experience, please use headphones, raise the volume and increase the luminosity of your phone. Notes On Blindness VR is produced by Ex Nihilo, ARTE France, and the French startup AudioGaming, in co-production with Archer’s Mark. It has been supported by the TFI New Media Fund and Ford Foundation – JustFilms, Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC) and Région Midi-Pyrénées.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Notes on Blindness VR at 3.8 against Google Cardboard's 2.8. Notes on Blindness VR also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months) and review sentiment (49% vs 24%). Google Cardboard's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid) and ratings volume (598 vs 10). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Notes on Blindness VR holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 2.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Google Cardboard has 598 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 24% of Google Cardboard's written reviews are positive against 49% of Notes on Blindness VR's.
Google Cardboard ships an update every 3 months, Notes on Blindness VR weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Google Cardboard | Notes on Blindness VR |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (598 ratings) | 3.8 (10 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 24.2% of reviews | 48.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 598 — better | 10 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 9.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 421 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ARTE France Apps | |
Customer experience
Google Cardboard
Notes on Blindness VR
Bugs and requests
Google Cardboard
Reported bugs
3 issues- Constant spinning/shaking on some devices
- Crashes and freezes on launch
- Incompatibility with certain VR headsets
Requested features
4 requests- More VR games and interactive experiences
- Ability to view own photos/videos in VR
- Support for newer iOS versions
- Improved navigation and controls
Notes on Blindness VR
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Google Cardboard
No in-app purchases
Notes on Blindness VR
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Google Cardboard free?
Is Notes on Blindness VR free?
Which has better reviews, Google Cardboard or Notes on Blindness VR?
Do Google Cardboard or Notes on Blindness VR have ads?
Which is updated more often, Google Cardboard or Notes on Blindness VR?
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