Named for its fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is inserted, the platform was intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and development in VR applications.

[1][2] Users can either build their own viewer from simple, low-cost components using specifications published by Google, or purchase a pre-manufactured one.

To use the platform, users run Cardboard-compatible mobile apps on their phone, place it into the back of the viewer, and view content through the lenses.

Google provides extra recommendations for large scale manufacturing, and pre-assembled kits based on these plans are available for less than US$5[9] from multiple vendors, who have also created a number of Cardboard variations.

[20] On launch, the application offers icons for Cardboard Demos, 360 Video Channel, and Street View, with tabs for My Library and Get Apps.

The demonstrations also included a Google Earth option that allowed interaction with a 3-D reconstruction of real terrain, but this appeared to have been removed as of late May 2019.

[citation needed] Following declining interest in Cardboard, Google announced on November 6, 2019, that it would open-source the platform's SDK.

[22] Once footage has been shot, the VR video is compiled from the individual cameras through "the assembler", Jump's back-end software.

[22] Finalized video shot through Jump can then be viewed through a stereoscopic VR mode of YouTube with a Cardboard viewer.

[22] Expeditions is a program for providing VR experiences to school classrooms through Google Cardboard viewers, allowing educators to take their students on virtual field trips.

[25] Each classroom kit would include 30 synchronized Cardboard viewers and smartphones, along with a tablet for the teacher to act as tour guide.

[29] In July 2017, Google released a standalone version of the Expedition app, separating it from the platform's education initiative and making it available to the public.

[31] In February 2015, toy manufacturer Mattel, in cooperation with Google, announced a VR version of the stereoscopic viewer View-Master.

[33] On November 8, 2015, The New York Times included a Google Cardboard viewer manufactured by Knoxlabs[34] with all home newspaper deliveries.