Freequency places birds in the room around you and asks you to find them by ear. That only works if your phone can understand the space you're standing in — where the floor is, how far away the wall is, and how you're moving through it. On Android, that understanding comes from a Google component called Google Play Services for AR, better known as ARCore.
If Freequency sent you here, your phone either doesn't have ARCore installed, has an outdated version, or isn't on Google's list of supported devices.
What ARCore actually does
ARCore is a system service made by Google, separate from the Play Store itself. It's what lets any Android app understand its physical surroundings.
- Motion tracking — it combines the camera feed with the phone's motion sensors to work out exactly where the phone is in the room, and which way it's pointing.
- Environment understanding — it detects surfaces like floors, tables and walls, so a bird can be placed on something instead of floating in nowhere.
- A stable frame of reference — it keeps that position locked as you walk around, turn your head, or lower the phone.
Why Freequency depends on it
The exercise only works if the sound stays put. When you turn your head, the bird's call has to arrive at your ears from the same fixed point in the room — that's what makes your brain treat it as a real object in space, and that's what the training relies on.
Spatial audio needs precise, low-latency tracking to do that convincingly. Without ARCore, Freequency can play a sound, but it can't anchor it to a place. The daily session would lose the one thing that makes it effective.
Requirements
Your phone needs all three:
- Android 7.0 (Nougat) or newer. Some newer devices require Android 8.0 or later.
- Google Play Services for AR installed and up to date. This is a free download from the Play Store.
- An ARCore-certified device. Google individually tests and certifies phones before enabling AR on them.
Three things to try
1. Install or update Google Play Services for AR
Open the Play Store and search for Google Play Services for AR, or go directly to the Play Store listing. If you see Install or Update, tap it, then reopen Freequency.
2. Check your Android version
Go to Settings → About phone → Android version. If you're below Android 7.0, check whether a system update is available under Settings → System → System update.
3. Look up your phone
Google publishes the full list of certified devices at developers.google.com/ar/devices. Search for your exact model. If it isn't listed, ARCore isn't available for it.
Why some phones aren't supported
Certification isn't arbitrary, and it isn't about how new or expensive a phone is. Google checks the camera, the motion sensors, the physical placement of that hardware, and whether the processor can keep up with real-time tracking. A phone that fails any of those checks doesn't get certified, because the AR experience on it would drift, stutter, or simply be wrong.
A few common reasons your phone may not qualify:
- It didn't ship with the Google Play Store. Devices sold without Google services — including many models sold in specific regions — can't install ARCore.
- The sensors don't meet the bar. Budget and entry-level phones often skip the gyroscope quality needed for stable tracking.
- It's running a custom ROM. Modified Android builds usually fail Google's certification check, even on hardware that's otherwise supported.
- It's very new. Certification can lag a few months behind a device's release. It's worth checking the list again later.
If your phone isn't supported
There's no way around it from our side — ARCore is a Google component, and we can't enable it on a device Google hasn't certified. Freequency's daily session can't run without it.
What you can do:
- Check the list again in a few months if your device is recent. Google adds phones regularly.
- Use an iPhone or iPad if you have one. Freequency is available on iOS, where AR runs on Apple's built-in ARKit — no separate install needed.
- Talk to your audiologist or care provider. Freequency is one approach among several, and they can help you find something that fits the device you have.
Still stuck?
If your phone is on Google's supported list and Freequency still won't start a session, get in touch through the help page and tell us your exact phone model and Android version. That's usually enough for us to pin down what's going wrong.
