If you’re an iPhone user, this is your best hope for a VR controller

Google’s virtual reality team has said that they want the Daydream controller, a little remote with an internal motion sensor and a trackpad, to be the “mouse of VR” — a standardized control system that people intuitively comprehend the moment they pick it up. But unlike your average mouse, the Daydream controller still only works with a small subset of devices: new Android phones that support the Daydream standard. iOS users, in particular, are being left in the cold. That’s why mobile headset maker Merge VR is working on its own, more universal take on the controller.

The Merge VR remote is still in an early state; we saw a 3D-printed prototype at the VR Developers Conference in San Francisco. But its creators say they’ve been working on it in some form for a year and a half. The version we saw has a lot more buttons than the Daydream remote — two arrows, two face buttons, one analog stick, two bottom triggers, and a little home button on the end, to be precise. The latest design supposedly gets rid of most of these, bringing it to rough parity with Daydream. It can be paired with the Merge VR headset, seen above, but it can also be used with any other third-party headset or even non-VR device, as long it’s supported by a given game or app. Think of it as a third-party Bluetooth gamepad with an unusual design.