14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook announced that it launched its own 360-degree video app on the Samsung Gear VR, as the first official Facebook-branded VR social application. The new app on the Samsung Gear VR won’t be a full version of the social network.
Facebook’s own video app will show 360-degree photos and videos from the news feed and timeline, as well as anything that the user may have saved on mobile or desktop. The app will display a general feed of media companies and selected individuals who shared 360-degree videos.
The company has mentioned that users will be able to post their reactions to videos and even share videos to Facebook. More social features should arrive to the app soon.
More than 1 million 360 videos were published on Facebook
The new video app is divided into four sections, including one that lets users explore interesting and popular 360 content on Facebook. Another section lets users view content posted by friends and pages that they follow. In addition, they will be able to view 360 photos and videos that they’ve shared.
According to Facebook, 25 million 360 photos and 1 million 360 videos have already been published on the social network and the new app helps users immerse themselves in content that they’ve saved. However, the content is only available on Gear VR-compatible Samsung phones for now.
Facebook also owns Oculus, the co-creator of Gear VR. Facebook 360 for Gear VR is available in the Oculus store and the current 1.1.46 version has a file size of 118.9MB.
Facebook is constantly working on improving the experience of their users in various apps, and the company intends to introduce emoji reactions to its Messenger application. Users might soon be able to enjoy a dislike button in Messenger, but the feature won’t be made available in the main Facebook app.