Mozilla has unveiled Firefox Reality, a new web browser for virtual and augmented reality hardware. It's designed to browse traditional 2D web content while also hoping to push the boundaries of what the web can do when coupled with VR technology, and can be operated by voice command.
Talking to VR users, Mozilla learned that one common frustration is finding new games as well as virtual and augmented reality experiences. For this reasons, Firefox Reality puts a feed of VR and AR content front and center on its home screen.
"We had to rethink everything, including navigation, text-input, environments, search and more," Mozilla's Andre Vrignaud writes in a post on the Mozilla blog. Vrignaud is Head of Mixed Reality Platform Strategy at the organization. "This required years of research, and countless conversations with users, content creators, and hardware partners. The result is a browser that is built for the medium it serves."
To make sure of fast and smooth performance, Firefox Reality is built on Mozilla's faster Quantum engine – though according to the blog post this appears to be a mobile version of the engine. The browser also includes features Firefox users have come to expect such as private browsing.
Mozilla stresses that this is still early days for the browser, with some fundamental features such as bookmarks still yet to be added. Perhaps a more exciting prospect is the planned support for 360-degree video.
The browser is available from the Viveport, Oculus and Daydream app stores. You can see a short promo video below.
Source: Mozilla