What is Fly VR?

Fly VR is the closest thing to the beloved Google Earth VR on a standalone headset — and for many Quest users, it's effectively the Google Earth VR experience they've been waiting for since that PC-only app launched in 2017. Developed by VirZOOM (a Boston-based company originally known for VR fitness cycling), Fly was originally created in direct collaboration with Google for a PC VR release in 2018 — but shelved when Google paused development of its Earth API. When Google announced the new Photorealistic 3D Map Tiles API, VirZOOM revived the project, rebuilt it for standalone headsets, and launched in 2024.

The app renders the entire planet in real time using Google's 3D Map Tiles — the same technology behind Google Earth's photorealistic terrain and building geometry. You can fly anywhere: hover above your school, cruise along the Thames, soar over Everest, zoom out to orbit and look back at the Earth from space. The world is rendered continuously as you move through it, with full 3D geometry in most major cities and landmark areas.

A user review that captures the experience well: "With the latest updates this got REALLY good. It's basically a Quest version of Google Earth where you can freely fly anywhere on the planet, go up into orbit, and experience the best vibes with the built-in streaming radio. Absolutely sublime." The 4.4★ rating across 80+ five-star reviews reflects a genuinely well-received app that has clearly improved meaningfully since its initial launch.

What Does Fly Offer?

School & Curriculum Value

Fly VR is one of the most versatile geography tools on Meta Quest. For physical geography, the ability to fly to any landform — river deltas, glacial valleys, volcanic archipelagos, desert dune fields, mountain ranges — and look at them from above while discussing the processes that created them is extraordinarily powerful. The aerial perspective is genuinely different from any map or satellite image on a flat screen; students understand scale and spatial relationships in a way that is difficult to achieve otherwise. For human geography, urban morphology, rural land use patterns, coastal development and transport infrastructure are all visible from the air in meaningful ways. Fast travel to curated destinations makes structured lesson use practical. Thumbstick mode and seated play make it accessible. At $9.99 per headset it is outstanding value for one of the most educationally flexible tools in the VR geography category.