Bulletins

Google ends Tilt Brush development, open sources the VR drawing app

Google is pulling the plug on yet another VR project: The company announced Tuesday that it has stopped development of Tilt Brush, the VR drawing app it acquired in 2015. However, Tilt Brush won't be shutting down completely; the app will remain available in VR app stores, and Google announced that it has open sourced the project.

The announcement comes just days after Tilt Brush co-creator Patrick Hackett made his departure from Google official. "To some, this may look like the end of Tilt Brush. To me, this is immortality," Hackett tweeted Tuesday morning.

Tilt Brush is just the latest VR project that Google has given up on. The company discontinued support for its mobile VR platform Daydream and shut down its VR capture platform, Jump, in 2019. In December, Google announced that it would be shutting down its 3D object repository Poly in the coming months.

Janko Roettgers

Janko Roettgers (Twitter, Mastodon) used to be a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.

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