Google Drops Its Blocks VR Building Project — But Releases the Source Code to All

Google has announced that Blocks, the company's virtual reality building block platform, is now open source — as it abandons in-house development and archives the project.

"In 2017, we shared Google Blocks with the world as a simple, easy and fun way to create 3D objects and scenes, using the new wave of VR headsets of the day," Google Blocks engineer Ian MacGillivray says of the product. "We were thrilled to see the surprising, inventive and beautiful assets you all put together with Google Blocks, and continue to be impressed by the enthusiasm of the community."

Thrilled Google may have been, but that hasn't stopped Blocks from being put on the chopping block: the company has ceased all development on the project, which aimed to make it easy to build low-poly 3D models from within a virtual reality environment, putting another gravestone in the Google Graveyard of canceled products and services.

Unlike some of its other terminated projects, though, Blocks may live on: the company is releasing an archive of its source code under the permissive Apache 2.0 license. "Please note that [as] Google Blocks is not an actively developed product," MacGillivray notes, "no pull requests will be accepted."

The project joins Tilt Brush, another creative virtual reality offering from Google released back in 2016 and itself archived and released under the Apache 2.0 license in 2021. Tilt Brush development was taken over by the Icosa Foundation, which maintains a fork dubbed "Open Brush" — and that has confirmed interest in doing the same with Google Blocks.

"We're thrilled to see Blocks join Tilt Brush in being released to the community, allowing another fantastic tool to grow and evolve," says Icosa's Mike Nisbet. "We can't wait to take the app to the next level as we have done with Open Brush."

The Google Blocks source code is now available on GitHub.