Facebook introduces 360 degree videos in news feeds

Taking a major leap into the virtual world, Facebook has rolled out 360 degree videos in News Feed.

“Our goal at Facebook is to connect you with the people and things that matter, every single day. Over time, we’ve seen that people enjoy more immersive content in their News Feeds. This is one reason video has been so successful on Facebook, and we’re excited to take it a step further with 360 video”, the announcement read.

The social networking giant explained that to create 360 videos, a special set of cameras is used to record all the 360 degrees of a scene simultaneously, meaning that users can choose the angle they like to watch the video from.

On the web, this can be done by dragging around the video with the cursor, while on mobile devices it can be done by dragging with finger or even just turning the device.

“Over time the types of stories that people want to tell each other and the types of content they want to share with each other will get richer and more immersive,” Facebook’s VP of product Will Cathcart told Wired. “So just as we’ve seen an evolution from text to photos, we’re seeing a pretty big jump to video in the last couple of years. We think that’s only going to continue.”

The announcement further added that there are several publishers sharing new 360 videos on Facebook today, including Star Wars, Discovery, GoPro, LeBron James & Uninterrupted, NBC’s Saturday Night Live, and VICE.

The post concluded stating, “If you’re using Facebook on the web or on Android, you should be able to see 360 videos in News Feed soon. We plan to roll this out for iOS in the coming months. It’s early days, but we’re excited about the possibilities for 360 video and hope it helps people explore the world in new, immersive ways.”