Photos and videos shot in 360° – interactive media that lets you click around the capture see beyond the frame and into your surroundings – are becoming increasingly popular on Facebook. The new mobile VR app Facebook 360 gives Gear VR users an easy way to immerse themselves in this 360° content.
Facebook 360 organizes content into four sections: Explore, for viewing popular content; Following, for viewing items from friends and pages that you follow; Saved, for viewing items you've saved from your News Feed; and Timeline, for sharing your own 360-degree photos and videos. It's free from the Oculus Store.
At launch, the app is only available for the Samsung Gear VR headset. This is not surprising, considering that Facebook owns Oculus, the VR company that partnered with Samsung to create the Gear. Considering the prevalence of Facebook, however, we wouldn't be surprised to eventually see the social media giant roll out the app to Oculus Rift (you can already watch Facebook 360 videos inside the Oculus Video app on Rift, but there's no standalone app yet), though the company has not confirmed this.
Facebook first launched 360° videos in September 2015, and started rolling them out to certain Facebook Live users last December. With a 360° camera, anyone can share their own interactive photos and videos to their News Feed.
Source: Facebook