Facebook's virtual reality video app: 3 things you need to know
Social media giant Facebook is making a virtual reality video app that will let its users experience new worlds and augmented realities.
According to the report by the Wall Street Journal, here are the 3 things that we know so far:
1.) Facebook is working on an app that would let its users experience virtual reality and would likely make use of multiple cameras for a 360-degree view and tilting the phones could change the viewing perspective.
2.) The report added that the app is still in early development stage and there has been no word so far on when the app will launch.
3.) The app will be compatible for both iOS and Android mobile devices.
There has been no confirmation or news about the app from Facebook so far.
Last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a long wall post about virtual reality technology after acquiring Oculus VR for $2 billion.
"When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people," Zuckerberg wrote in a post. "Oculus's mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences."
Zuckerberg concluded his post by saying that virtual reality was once categorized under science fiction, an imaginative object that could not be brought to reality. But then again, he added that computers and smartphones were once like that too.
According to Mashable, Facebook has been dabbling with 360-degree similar videos. Ealier this year at the F8 developer conference, they have presented spherical videos for News Feed which will be compatible with VR headsets especially Facebook's Oculus Rift.
Jay Parikh, Facebook's VP of global engineering and infrastructure shared Monday that Facebook is continually pushing its boundaries as it takes virtual reality in its fold.
"When Facebook was founded, it was primarily a text based site: there were status posts and there were wall posts," Panikh sadid during the @Scale engineering conference. "We've moved in to a world where most of the world today is focused on photos. But we're quickly moving into this world where I think, in the next couple years, most of the experience on Facebook is going to be about video."
He added that the platform won't just be limited to videos, Facebook users will soon experience virtual reality and augmented reality in a few years.