EMERGING TECH
EMERGING TECH
EMERGING TECH
Facebook launches 360 video and photo app for Samsung Gear VR
Facebook Inc. today announced the launch of Facebook 360, an immersive photo and video app for the Samsung Gear VR, a mobile virtual reality headset that is powered by technology from the Facebook-owned Oculus VR Inc.
According to Facebook, users of the social network have already uploaded more than 25 million 360-degree photos and over 1 million 360 videos. Facebook Product Director Brent Ayrey and software engineer Christopher Wong said in a blog post that the new app will bring several of Facebook’s social features into virtual reality, including the ability to react to 360 content and post it to Facebook. Users will also be able to discover new 360 content, as well as follow the VR media shared by their friends.
Facebook also said that other social features will be coming to the app in the near future.
Aside from the ongoing partnership between Oculus and Samsung, the Gear VR has one other major advantage for Facebook’s VR efforts: it has one of the largest install bases of any virtual reality product on the market. According to Samsung, the Gear VR has over 5 million users as of January, and according to Samsung Electronics America chief Tim Baxter, users have already watched over 10 million hours of video on the device.
Facebook VR features have been on the horizon ever since the company shelled out roughly $3 billion to acquire Oculus in 2014. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is a strong believer in the future of VR not only as a source of entertainment, but also as a more immersive way for people to connect online. At the Oculus Connect 3 conference in October, Zuckerberg described the motivation behind Facebook’s “people first” approach to VR.
“Virtual reality is the perfect platform to put people first because of presence, because you feel like you’re really there in another place with people,” Zuckerberg said a the time. “You have this space where you can do anything you want. You can play a game, you can do work, but more importantly you are free to explore, and you’re probably going to end up doing more things together than if every experience was an app you had to go into separately.”
Facebook 360 is already available for download either through the Oculus app on the Gear VR or through the Oculus website.
Image: Facebook
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