Facebook has allowed users to view 360-degree videos from its News Feed. To create a more immersive experience, the social giant is launching a dedicated app for it. Called Facebook 360, it's initially available for Samsung Gear VR.
The app does not allow users to browse and use Facebook like they do on the web or the main mobile app. Instead, it's only allowing users to view videos. With more than 25 million 360 photos and more than 1 million videos, users should have plenty of contents to play with.
The app is divided into four feeds:
- Explore to see popular and interesting contents throughout Facebook.
- Following feature to see friends and pages the user follows.
- Saved is where contents the user has saved.
- Timeline as a place for the user's own 360 uploads.
The similarities between Facebook's main app and Facebook 360 app is that users can Like/react, comment, save or share contents.
With Facebook 360, Facebook is trying to recreate the experience of 360 into a dedicated app for convenient use. However, it can be inconvenient to have to use a VR headset to see 360 contents while the main Facebook app is where users' main activities happen.
But here Facebook 360 wants to be a place where video discovery can be more organized. It's also a way for Facebook to put video at the front and center - giving the possibility for it to be the main source for online video.
The company has announced dedicated video apps for streaming devices like Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, and is now even auto-playing videos on mobile devices with sound.