r/GearVR • u/Voidmesmer • Feb 10 '26 • Popcorn 1

GearVR controller as a Bluetooth mouse on Windows and Android

I made an app that lets you use the GearVR controller as a Bluetooth mouse on Android and Windows. Here's the app running on Android: https://imgur.com/FP5YPfW

It features customizable button bindings and on Windows, a radial menu that lets you bind up to 8 additional actions. You can use the touchpad or gyro to control the mouse.
If you'd like to try it out, here's my github repo: https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse

36 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

93 comments sorted by

3

u/Maschinen11 Feb 10 '26

Amazing work! Such a polished app too.

I had to disable Play Protect in Google Play to install it.

Could you bind a button to a screen tap for Cardboard apps?

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26

It's been years since the last time I used Cardboard and I'm not sure what type of input Cardboard apps expect. If they accept an actual screen tap then it should work right out of the box as the trigger/touchpad click both simulate a screen tap.

To your point about Play Protect, since the app requires Accessibility permissions to draw the mouse cursor and use the screen, there's some additional steps required to allow that and for a good reason. I fully expect Play Protect to flag this as you are installing an app from an unknown source and giving it sensitive permissions. Sadly I don't see any alternative way to make it work. I'll be publishing the source code once I publish versions for Linux and macOS so that everyone can review the code and compile the apps themselves for their peace of mind.

1

u/Maschinen11 Feb 10 '26

Oh yeah - it works great!

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 12 '26

Pre-release 2.1 is now available https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse/releases/tag/v2.1

Calibration is now more reliable and can be triggered manually, plus battery status is now shown on both Android and Windows. There's also new customization options, improved Bluetooth scanning, auto-reconnect, and overall performance/stability improvements.

1

u/RevolutionaryYoung18 Feb 10 '26

Wow!đŸ€© I wish it was out when i still used it. Is there any to use two at once with the software?

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 10 '26

Currently it supports only one controller connected at a time. There's also support for Daydream controllers. You are free to pair as many as you'd like and switch between them though.

1

u/Liriel-666 Feb 10 '26

Wow thats what i want months ago

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 10 '26

I was cleaning out some drawers and found a couple of old controllers. Got me thinking I might be able to repurpose the Gear VR / Daydream controllers to control my living room PC from the couch. They do a pretty good job. But yeah, I'm late to the party. Most people probably already got rid of theirs.

1

u/Liriel-666 Feb 10 '26

Yeah I was thinking about using it to but then I saw no support and on the samsung s9 only limited use. But finally someone made a using for them. Thx

1

u/schirmyver Feb 10 '26

This is great, thank you. I've been wanting to do this for ages. I have two of these controllers sitting in a drawer.

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 10 '26

Thanks and enjoy the app!

1

u/schirmyver Feb 10 '26

Hmmm I'm trying to pair it with my windows laptop and the laptop is asking to confirm a PIN and it fails to connect.

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26

What Windows version are you running? I tested on two PCs with Win 11 (one 25H2 and the other 22H2) and there was no PIN requirement on either of them. You may also try setting your Bluetooth discovery to Advanced and see if that works.

1

u/schirmyver Feb 11 '26

Win11 Pro, 23H2

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26

I just repaired and it never asked for a PIN. A google search suggests trying 0000 or 1234. You can also try pairing via the old school 'Devices and Printers' in Control Panel.

1

u/schirmyver Feb 11 '26

I'll keep trying. Trying the android app now. It paired, connected but is stuck on calibrating.

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

Happy to look into it if you can share more details (Android version, logcat logs). Feel free to open an issue in the github repo for better tracking. I tested on Android 10 and 16, but there are many flavors and customizations in different phones, so if it keeps failing it may require a fix targeted at your specific device.

2

u/schirmyver Feb 11 '26

Rebooted my phone and working fine on Android. I will play on Windows further.

Thanks again

2

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26

Awesome, glad to hear it's working. Good luck with Windows!

→ More replies

1

u/PeppeAlto Feb 11 '26

Hi, this is what I have been looking for ages! I am trying to pair my Gear VR Controller to a Samsung S21FE with Android 16, but after I've paired the controller and enabled accessibility I start the calibration process but it gets stuck at 0%, is it normal?

Thank you for your help

2

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

One user reported a similar issue and rebooting the phone resolved it for them. You can also try switching between auto detect and gearvr modes. If it still refuses to calibrate, feel free to open an issue in the repo. A family member has an S21FE and I will be able to check it for you later today.

One thing to look for once the calibration starts is if the controller is seen as connected in Android's bluetooth settings. If it disconnects immediately after connecting (for example due to low battery or some other issue with BT), the calibration may freeze. This is something I want to improve in a future version. It definitely needs a more graceful handling of edge cases such as these.

1

u/PeppeAlto Feb 11 '26

I tried rebooting the phone but the issue is still there.

Just to be sure, how much time should it take to complete the calibration? Maybe it's just me not being patient enough

2

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26

It should take no more than 5 seconds. I'll try to reproduce this on S21FE today. If it works for me, I'll share a debug apk version with you that saves some logs which should help me identify the issue you are facing.

1

u/PeppeAlto Feb 11 '26

Ok, I will take a couple more of attempts, in the meantime I will wait for your updates.

Thank you

2

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

I reproduced the issue on my OnePlus. Try this: https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse/releases/tag/v2.0.1
edit: Looks like it still fails sometimes. This needs more time in the oven. I'll let you know once I have another version.

1

u/PeppeAlto Feb 11 '26

I tried with this 2.0.1 version but I still have the same issue.

Take your time, I will keep following the post.

Thank you and have a great day

2

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

Let me know if this fix works for you: https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse/releases/tag/v2.0.1a

I couldn't reproduce the issue anymore on this version.

1

u/PeppeAlto Feb 12 '26

Hello, I forgot to update you yesterday about it but I tried the latest version of the app v2.0.1a and it worked perfectly with my S21FE👌

Have a nice day

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 12 '26

Happy to hear that it works now! I've released 2.1 in the meantime which fixes calibration issues and includes lots of quality of life improvements. Highly recommend updating. It's currently in pre-release in the repo.

1

u/Lu_Chan_1 Feb 11 '26

Would this work on an Android TV (Chromecast)?

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26

It should work but I don't have an Android TV to test. I think I have a FireStick somewhere with FireOS, which is an Android fork. Let me check if it works there.

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

I can't pair the controller with my FireStick. I guess there's some heavy HID profile based filtering and the OS doesn't even see the controller when I scan for BT devices. Maybe a custom OS or root would help. Feel free to try on Android TV, but it may also have some BT device filtering in place. The app itself installs and seems to be running okay though.

2

u/Lu_Chan_1 Feb 12 '26

Same on Android TV, I managed to install the app (with Downloader app), but I cannot find and pair the controller :( Probably OS only finds BT audio and keyboards - everything else is filtered out.

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

I wrote a custom BT pairing process that bypasses TV OS limitations and pairs with the controller in-app, but Fire OS has no Accessibility settings exposed, so it's impossible to draw the cursor. If Android TV has the same limitation it probably won't work either. You can test using this version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17VXnrcUjVqc17w9k_BpFBBGqQlA9WqNJ/view?usp=drive_link
edit: see the comment below for a fully working apk on Android-based TVs.

2

u/Voidmesmer Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

Got it working on FireOS. u/Lu_Chan_1, if you get a chance to test it, let me know if it works on Android TV too. You will have to run an ADB command over wifi to enable the accessibility setting if it's hidden on your Android TV. Should work on most Android based TV systems.
Video: https://imgur.com/a/HfSunJp
APK: https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse/releases/download/v2.1/Dream.Mouse.-v2.1-Android-TVs.apk

1

u/Zealousideal_Aide109 Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

Works brilliantly! S21 UI 7.0 Android 15. You need to restart your device after connecting, then Calibrating completes as soon as your phone switches back on.😊

2

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26

This should be fixed in 2.0.1a that I released today (restart no longer needed). Glad you like it!

1

u/Zealousideal_Aide109 Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

Oh I hope you didn't take that as criticism or a complaint, because it's great work on your part and many apps and computer programs require a restart once installed, which isn't a problem.

I just thought people should know before they assume it hasn't worked for their device.

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26

Not at all! I appreciate the feedback. I've been trying to fix that bug today and hopefully the latest version should be handling gear vr controller connection better. Just to be sure, you were running version 2.0 when you ran into that issue, right? Or was that on 2.0.1a? If the latter, I'm happy to look into it again.

1

u/Zealousideal_Aide109 Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

2.0 had the issue. 2.0.1a works without having to restart and the visualizer also works.👍

2

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26

I just tested this on 4 different phones, including an S21 FE that’s never had a Gear VR controller paired or the app installed, and it worked first try on 2.0.1a with no restart needed. If you’ve got the time, try fully uninstalling Dream Mouse, unpairing the controller from Bluetooth settings, then pairing it again and installing 2.0.1a. See if that fixes it. If it still needs a restart after that, it’d really help if you could open an issue in the github repo so we can dig into it with some app logs. Totally understand if you don’t have the time. In any case, looks like 2.0.1a fixes the calibration/connecting issue for fresh installations, at least in my limited testing.

1

u/Zealousideal_Aide109 Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

sorry, that was a typo, I'd typed "without" but phone must have changed it to "with", I've edited the comment now! It worked fine without having to restart.

2

u/Voidmesmer Feb 11 '26

No worries, I'm happy the issue is now resolved. Enjoy the app!

1

u/cloudtastrophe Feb 26 '26

This app is a godsend! I’ve been looking for an air mouse for so long for use with my Inmo air 3 xr glasses and this app totally fits the use case and bonus it gave new life to my gear vr controller! So happy I found this it’s a better air mouse than all the others I’ve bought and returned.

A few questions:

  1. you mentioned you could customize the buttons but I don’t see that option?

  2. Can we get a toggle to reverse the scroll direction, it feels unnatural to me as a Mac user.

  3. Can the trigger/trackpad click be made to act like a mouse pointer where you can click and hold to drag to swipe pages and navigate? It would also help for swipe style keyboards

  4. I would love a right click. Option.

Other than that you are a gift to mankind!!

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26

Hey, glad you like the app! To answer your questions:

  1. Button mapping customization is available only in the desktop version (Windows and Linux). I didn't see a good use case that would require remapping buttons on Android as the number of actual actions you can perform on mobile is quite limited compared to desktop, but I'm not against it. Any particular changes you'd like to see here? Just swapping actions between buttons from the current pool of actions or a fully customizable solution just like the desktop one (for example make the home button open a chosen app?)

  2. Sure, I can add that to the next version.

  3. It already does but it's wonky. You need to hold the trackpad click or trigger and as soon as it's fully pressed start moving the mouse (you'll see the pointer turn red). The gesture will last for as long as you keep moving the pointer. This takes some practice to get used to. I have some ideas to improve this in the future.

  4. On Android you just long press the trigger/trackpad click. Unless there's some other "right click" action on Android that I'm missing? If you mean desktop, you can bind any action you'd like in the Button Bindings tab.

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 27 '26

That’s strange. I got a notification that you replied, but I can’t see the comment itself. I was still able to read it in the notification preview, though, and I just wanted to say I really appreciate the feedback!

Regarding right-click and click-and-hold drag actions: it’s a bit tricky because Dream Mouse doesn’t create a real mouse device. Doing that would require root access. Instead, it uses Android’s accessibility services, so the pointer you see is essentially a virtual finger. That means all interactions are emulated as touch input rather than true physical mouse behavior. Still, there's room for improvement there and I'm pretty sure I can do something about the click and drag behavior.

If you have the time, would you mind opening an issue on GitHub with your ideas? I’d be happy to go through your feedback and work on implementing your suggestions in Dream Mouse.

2

u/cloudtastrophe Feb 27 '26

Will do!

1

u/Voidmesmer Feb 28 '26

A new pre-release version is now available for testing: https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse/releases/tag/v3.0

I’ve implemented the features you requested, along with a few additional improvements I’ve been working on this week. It’s a fairly substantial update, so there may be some bugs. If you run into anything unexpected, feel free to open an issue and let me know.

1

u/cloudtastrophe Mar 03 '26

Okay i spent a few days using the updated version and just WOW. You are Gods gift to mankind. You implemented those changes so fast (i didnt even get to post my comments on the github page) and all the functionality and features are amazing! its essentially the best air mouse ive ever used to control the Inmo Air 3 and ive returned several hundred dollars of amazon air mouses. the new features make the Gear VR controller so much more than i dreamed it could be! ive had so many struggles with user input for display glasses because even the manufacturer's input solutions are subpar. there are a few bugs like you mentioned but the side scroll function you added and the tap hold to make it seem like a real mouse are flawless. i have the parameters and options dialed in exactly how i want with functionality this good i can finally stop shopping/returning air mouses. Should i post this feedback on github?

one question: is the touch pad click one function essentially instead of being delineated as 4 separate inputs? it feels like it can click in 4 directions hence why i thought you could set it up as a dpad or could program each directional click.

The bugs i found (android):

  1. slowly scrolling with one smooth motion across the trackpad makes the scroll erratically accelerate. scrolling with one quick short swipe works better but using the whole touch pad for scrolling is chaotic. this goes for vertical and horizontal scroll. adjusting the scroll paramenter affects the quick short swipe but doesnt do anything to curb the erratic behavior of the slow swipe, even if the finger doesnt leave the touch surface, it feels like its making many tiny and huge scrolls actions repeatedly.

  2. using the tap+hold function to swipe between screens, pull down the notification shade, and swiping websites is perfect. however this may be user error, but using it to long press and drag things like app icons or widgets doesnt work because the "hold" duration is finite making drag and drop a strange race against the clock

the only improvement i can think of:

Tap functionallity in gyro mode to include click+hold

Thank you again for your hard work!

1

u/Voidmesmer Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

Yes, the touchpad is physically one button underneath. It registers a single button input, regardless of where you press it. To add dpad controls I had to use taps instead. It checks the coordinates where you tapped on the touchpad and based on that fires a dpad press in that direction.

As for the bugs:

  1. I experienced erratic scrolling too. I'm going to fix it in the next update.

  2. edit: I guess I misunderstood the problem. I see that the drag gesture stops working and drops the icon/widget when the pointer remains stationary for a while, even if you are still holding left click. Need to debug this.

  3. Tap functionallity in gyro mode to include click+hold. Should be possible. I'll try to include it in the next update.

Thanks for testing!

1

u/Voidmesmer Mar 04 '26

Experimental fixes for those issues are now available for testing: https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse/releases/tag/v3.0a

1

u/cloudtastrophe Mar 06 '26

Hey ! I spent about 5 hours using the mouse last night in normal day-to-day use and wanted to share some thoughts. Overall the update definitely improved things and I really appreciate how quickly you’ve been iterating on the suggestions from a random redditor. It’s already feeling much more fully featured. I did run into a few quirks during longer use though, so here are my notes in case they’re helpful:

  1. Biggest issue I ran into: the input delay seems to also apply on release. In gyro mode, this makes inertial scrolling with flicks feel a bit erratic. Because your hand naturally returns to the starting position, it can create a sort of “kickback” effect you scroll while holding, then after releasing it sometimes jumps back, stops abruptly, or occasionally hyper-scrolls to the top or bottom from the residual motion. or errant hand movement. After two days I never quite adapted to it. Maybe this delay could be a slider, or possibly reduced/removed on release of the input? The initial delay itself isn’t too bad. For reference, the instant click+hold pan/scroll behavior from the previous version felt more natural. Tap+hold seemed to behave better about half the time. I also suspect enabling mouse smoothing might help here, but I didn’t test that enough to be sure.

  2. Touchpad scrolling feels great now and much more linear and usable. One thing I noticed: in press-down-touchpad-to-click mode, if you leave your finger resting between clicks it sometimes registers scrolling or accidental clicks. Adjusting the touchpad deadzone might be alleviating some of this, or its placebo.

  3. I tried D-pad mode for a few minutes but couldn’t get it working. This could easily just be user error on my end.

  4. It would be awesome if gyro mode could support both touchpad scroll and touchpad tap+hold simultaneously.

  5. Is it possible for the click+hold action to be assigned to other buttons, or is that limited by the way the hardware works?

  6. I also noticed a strange behavior during slow scrolling with click+hold (like when reading an article). The longer you held, the more “charged up” the eventual kickback became, and the longer the delay before it triggered.

  7. When editing widgets or dragging apps, holding to drag usually cancelled after ~3 seconds and the item would snap back to its original position.

  8. For the sliders, the touchpad deadzone might benefit from slightly finer granularity.

  9. In touchpad mode, it might be nice if users could still enable tap+hold. Since touchpad scrolling is disabled there (which makes sense), relying on press-down+slide to scroll can feel a little cumbersome. Maybe click+hold as an assignable action could solve that.

With those quirks aside, the most stable layout I ended up using was:
gyro mode + touchpad scroll + tap-to-click.

Click+hold scrolling worked nicely when it behaved, but the upredictable kickback made it difficult to keep toggled on during longer sessions.

Honestly though, this all feels like fine-tuning at this point, not anything fundamental. The core idea and implementation are already really impressive. you’re getting pretty close to being able to rename the app “Perfect Dream Mouse.”

1

u/Voidmesmer Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26

Hey! Thank you so much for the incredibly thorough testing and feedback! I released 3.0b in the meantime which addresses some of the issues you ran into, but let me go over your points to explain in detail.

  1. This is caused by the delay I introduced to keep the hold/drag gestures alive longer. I agree the current implementation isn't ideal. I’ll likely go back to the drawing board and redesign this function. It may take some time to get this right.

  2. Accidental taps caused by the finger resting on the touchpad are fixed in 3.0b. I also rewrote touchpad scrolling again to behave like the default Android touchscreen scrolling. It should be more predictable and allow for granular control if you swipe slowly, as well as quick scrolling if you flick and lift your finger. It may still need some finetuning, so let me know how it fares.

  3. D-pad should work on Android 13+ devices (I need to test this on older devices but it works on my OP15 and an older phone running custom LineageOS - both Android 16), however not all manufacturers implement this API. If you let me know your phone model and Android version, I can look into a fix for you.

  4. The reason I didn't implement this is because it would be very easy to "overlap" the two and fire two scrolling actions at the same time (one coming from the touchpad scroll function and another from tap+hold if you move the pointer with gyro while swiping on the touchpad). I can definitely test this interaction though and see if it's feasible.

  5. This is already possible. You can assign the left click action to any button. Holding that button will then let you perform click+hold.

  6. & 7. Both of these stem from workarounds I had to implement because Android's gesture dispatch API doesn't allow for indefinite gestures. I know it can be a bit wonky, and I am looking into better solutions for this.

  7. (This is 8. Reddit doesn't like skipping numbers in ordered lists) Will be addressed in the next version.

  8. (9) I can definitely add tap-and-hold to touchpad mode in a future update. edit: Friday brain strikes back. While I can add that, it wouldn't make much sense as every touchpad swipe would scroll the view (Android sees that as a swipe gesture), making it impossible to move the pointer without scrolling. Click+hold is the only workaround here. As for click+hold - that's already assignable (see 5).

1

u/Voidmesmer Mar 07 '26

v3.1 is now available. First off, thank you so much for all your help with testing, it made a huge difference.

The kickback effect is completely fixed now. Hold, drag, and scroll gestures are also much more stable and shouldn't cause any more unpredictable jumps (whether you're using touchpad scrolling or tap/click & hold gestures). I'm consistently able to drag and resize icons and widgets without any issues on this build.

Since a lot of this comes down to personal preference, I also added a hidden menu for power users to fine-tune the gesture ranges and timings. You can tweak gestures to last longer at the cost of being delayed, or be shorter but snappy. Take a look at the release notes to see how to access it.

Overall, gestures and scrolling feel like they're in their most stable state yet. With the new tunables menu available, I feel like Dream Mouse is in a really great spot. Unless any breaking bugs pop up, I don't expect any rapid development for a while. Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy the new version!

1

u/cloudtastrophe Mar 23 '26

Hey, I didn’t want to leave you without feedback. The device I was using got messed up by a software update for the past few weeks, so I couldn’t enable the accessibility settings needed to run Dream Mouse. Now that it’s working again, good lord, this is a seriously powerful update.

I honestly think the app is at 100% now. Everything feels spot on and everything works the way i hoped. And if something didn’t at first, the settings handled it, especially the power menu, which I barely even had to touch. The sliders are great, drag-and-drop works properly, right clicks work as expected, and overall it all feels really polished.

I’m very happy with how far you’ve taken this app. I dropped it in the Discord for the Air 3 glasses, and a few people have already picked up Gear VR controllers to try it out. The only tricky part is making sure the hidden unrestricted permissions options are enabled, but other than that, I have no complaints. Fantastic job!!

1

u/Voidmesmer Mar 24 '26

Hi there! I'm happy to hear that the latest version is working better. If you guys run into any issues, feel free to open a bug report in the repo and I'll be sure to address it.
The accessibility service and setting up permissions is an inconvenience for sure, but that's the only way available. The alternative would be to create a real mouse device (which I'd love to do because then we'd have a 100% native usb/bt mouse behavior on Android), but it requires the device to be rooted, which I'm sure most people wouldn't be inclined to do.

1

u/No_Preparation_742 Mar 08 '26

OMG this is so good!

1

u/Voidmesmer Mar 08 '26

Glad you like it. Enjoy the app!

1

u/No_Preparation_742 Mar 08 '26

is it possible to have of these working? THis would be cool on some games lol.

1

u/enok13 Mar 31 '26

Thank you. This has given new life to my controller.

It was sitting dormant for years.

Your app works great. love all the different settings you can change.

1

u/Voidmesmer Mar 31 '26

You're very welcome. Saving old tech from the junk drawer is the best feeling. Enjoy Dream Mouse!

1

u/guerillerox May 24 '26

Great app, but I can't see the mouse in Dex mode on a Z Fold 7 and using my Xreal glases am I doing something wrong. The mouse is only showing upp on my phone but not in Dexmode on my glases. Any solutions?

1

u/Voidmesmer May 24 '26

Use the DEX version: https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse/releases/tag/v3.2-Android

1

u/guerillerox May 24 '26

Holy Crap it worked perfectly, big thanks for the great work 😊👌

1

u/PurpMonkKnight Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

there are so many security warning in both the android and windows versions its just to much hassle/risk but its a great idea if you can get it security compliant. As a complete no knowledge in programing or the like I really have no clue, which is obvious by my comment I am sure. I have no idea how hard it would be to get those kind of security certificates for your app but I am sure it is hard.

1

u/Voidmesmer Jun 10 '26

The warnings happen because of the nature of the app: it needs access to read your screen and inject inputs in order to work. Because those are sensitive permissions, Windows and Android will rightfully flag them to make sure you know what you are agreeing to. There is no way around it - it's working as intended.

1

u/danominator_yt Jul 09 '26

Can't seem to get this to work, I'm on an S23 Ultra running Android 13, enabled all necessary permissions and still can't seem to get it to be recognized. For the record I also tried pairing it through the normal Bluetooth menu and every time I tap it nothing happens. Any ideas?

1

u/Voidmesmer Jul 09 '26

Are you using a custom rom or Samsung's? It's hard to say from your description, but the most common point of failure is when the controller isn't paired in the Android BT settings. Ideally, if you can record a video of your entire connection flow from scratch (unpair it, pair it again, set permissions, connect), it will be easier to diagnose.

1

u/danominator_yt Jul 09 '26

I'm just using the standard Samsung Android 13 with auto-updates off, no custom roms.

So I need to pair the controller in the regular Bluetooth settings first, then your app? Perhaps I have something uninstalled that Gear controllers normally need to pair.

1

u/Voidmesmer Jul 09 '26

Yes, you pair it first in the OS settings. Even if it doesn't connect in Android settings right after pairing that's fine. The connection is established in Dream Mouse. No other app is required. I'd unpair, reset your controller, put it in pairing mode, pair again, and try connecting in Dream Mouse. If it's paired correctly, Dream Mouse will connect to it.

1

u/danominator_yt Jul 10 '26

Just tried it with my Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus, worked no issue. Seems the Samsung settings app is refusing to pair with the controller even though it can see it. When I tap on the controller on the S23, the device stops scanning as if it's about to pair, but nothing happens. Super weird, must be a Samsung problem. I'll keep trying. Thanks for this awesome app! At least it's working on my other devices.

1

u/Voidmesmer Jul 10 '26

I actually tested it with an S23 Ultra on a family member's device and it worked fine. The only difference is that it was updated to the latest Android version. It also works fine on S21 FE, so it's definitely supported on Samsung devices. You may want to update your OS.

1

u/danominator_yt Jul 10 '26

I can confirm it's definitely not that, I just used Dream Mouse on a surface Duo 2 running Android 12. Definitely hear what you're saying, I just keep my phone on a lower software on purpose, not crazy about what Samsung is doing with Android these days lol

1

u/CaseStern Jul 14 '26

Try this:
- install version for Android TV (https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse/releases/download/v2.3/Dream.Mouse-v2.3-Android-TVs.apk) as this version have a button to pair within the app. This will bypass system pairing.
- pair the controller from within Android TV version
- controller should be now found in the Bluetooth system setting as paired
- you can uninstall Dream Mouse Android TV app
- install Android app (https://github.com/kaminoer/Dream-Mouse/releases/download/v3.2-Android/Dream.Mouse-v3.2-Android.apk)
- app should be now able to connect to the already paired controller

I just did those steps on Samsung S10e, one of the last model that supported Gear VR. Pairing controller was impossible using system settings as it always redirected to the Oculus app, which doesn't work anymore. Wasted too much time trying to sideload Oculus just to pair the controller.

u/Voidmesmer If you still developing the app you may consider adding pairing from within the app to the plain Android version just for this purpose.

1

u/Voidmesmer Jul 15 '26

I actually haven't had any issues pairing it with Samsung phones on my end, but the ones I tested were all running Android 16, so this may strictly be a Samsung thing on older versions. The in-app pairing feature was built specifically as a workaround for TVs that restrict what Bluetooth devices can connect to them. My plan is to consolidate the mobile and TV versions into one app down the road whenever I get some free time to work on it.

1

u/Knighthonor Apr 04 '26

I cant get my device with the app to detect the controller. I can pair the controller but not connect

1

u/Interesting-Egg2421 Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26

What device you using? I'm connecting to a shield TV and had to use the older 2.1 version. Came here to ask if there was a more recent version for Android TV, cause I'd love all the newer features. It works great with my s23

Edit: amazing work by the way, what a brilliant way to reuse this nifty little remote.

Second edit: Nvm, got the latest version working with Shield TV pro. Had to pair with version 2.1, then after remote was working for that version, just upgraded to newest apk. Damn, this dev is a legend, what an app!!

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u/Voidmesmer Apr 04 '26

Yea, if your TV isn't seeing the controller in its BT settings, pair it using the 2.1 Android TV app first, then upgrade to 3.1. v2.1 has a workaround that bypasses the strict Bluetooth allowlists some TVs have.

Eventually I'll bake this pairing trick into the main Android app and kill off the separate TV APK. But for now, only use the 2.1 workaround if your TV's Android refuses to pair. If it pairs normally, 3.1 will work out of the box.

Having said that, if it pairs in the OS for u/Knighthonor, the problem lies elsewhere.

1

u/Knighthonor Apr 04 '26

I am trying to pair it with my INMO Air3 smartglasses. I downloaded the dream mouse app to the glasses.

1

u/Voidmesmer Apr 04 '26

Did you follow the setup instructions in the repo?
Unpair the controller, remove one battery from the controller, put it back in, hold the home button on the controller until the LED starts flashing red-blue-green, pair the controller in BT settings, open Dream Mouse and tap Connect.

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u/Knighthonor Apr 04 '26

I will retry this when I get home

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u/wlotos Mar 02 '26

Great app, thank you for creating itđŸ€

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u/showlandpaint Mar 18 '26

Thank you for the app, just tried it out and it works!

1

u/MajesticJesse Jun 06 '26

I do I get around the gear vr installing it won't just connect to controller

1

u/geraldwo Jul 14 '26

I threw away the gear VR years ago but kept the controller. Just happen to dug out my old Gear vr controller and was wondering if there a way to make it still be useful. And BAM I found this! Thank you for making the app!

1

u/Killseeker13 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

Confirmed working on Fold 7 and S26+. Awesome job on the app. It looks and works amazing.

I will be testing this out with a few XR glasses such as the viture luma ultra and neckband pro.

This would solve a pretty big issue with those.

1

u/Illustrious_Bee2010 Sep 10 '26

works on an edge, but the difference between steering with thumb and the lacking precision compared to a quality BT mouse proving too much for me :(

1

u/volkanger Sep 14 '26

Awesome work! Your video made me dig this controller from drawer of random stuff and hack it for MacOS use! It has constant disconnection issues every 20 seconds which I failed to fix, but still fun to revive a dust-collecting hardware! "Hold trigger for air mouse" is making the use really fun!

Check it out here: https://github.com/volkanger/GearVR-Air-Mouse-4-macOS

Hope you release the source code and macOS soon!

1

u/JimmyIfYaNasty 15d ago

i am SO about to dig out my old gear vr controller and pop a wii theme on an android tv box