Android 7.0 Nougat Beta

Android 7.0 Nougat Beta For Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge And Galaxy S7 Does Not Bring Gear VR Support

Sam sung kicked off the Android 7.0 Nougat beta program for its flagship Galaxy S7 edge and Galaxy S7 smart phones in early November. Thanks to the beta program, users of the handsets in the United States, China, the UK and South Korea could register and get access to the firmware's beta version once they were selected.

Those excited by the news will be a little disheartened to know that the Android 7.0 Nougat beta for the Sam sung smart phones does not bring support for the Gear VAR headset.

That's right, if you attempt to connect your Galaxy S7 edge or Galaxy S7 smart phone to the Gear VR headset, you will not be able to establish a connection.

This news was first reported by the folks at VRheads who share that once one installs the preview version of Android 7.0 Nougat on their Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge smart phone, access to any Gear VAR games is lost.

What's The Issue?

When a user opens the Oculist Store app post the installation of Android Nougat beta on their Galaxy S7 edge or Galaxy S7 smart phone, they are greeted with the "Network error" message and asked to try again later.

When the app on the smart phone attempts to connect to the Oculars Store, this error message basically stops the entire virtual setting from loading. Therefore, Gear VAR cannot be used in conjunction with either smart phone running the beta version of Android 7.0 Nougat.

Why The Error?

The error message likely pops up because the Occults app is not updated to support Android 7.0 Nougat beta.

Any Workarounds?

No temporary workaround to make Gear VAR work on the beta version of the Android Nougat OS for the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge is available currently. Moreover, it is unlikely that an Oculars Services update will be pushed out to address the problem during the beta stage because Samsung's beta program is not performance-optimized yet.

However, we anticipate that Sam sung will push out an update before it rolls out the public release of Android 7.0 Nougat for its flagships.

Any Other Solution?

If you have updated your phone to Android 7.0 Nougat beta and wish to use the Gear VAR headset in tandem with your Galaxy S7 edge or Galaxy S7, there is only one option - downgrade to Marshmallow.

To do so, you have to deregulate from the Galaxy Beta Program via the app. Once this is done, you will be prompted to install a file. Installing this will enable you to roll back to the latest and most stable available firmware for your Sam sung handset.