Today, Facebook announced they’re rolling out 360-degree videos in News Feed.
There are a number of publishers sharing new 360 videos on Facebook today, including Star Wars, Discovery, GoPro, LeBron James & Uninterrupted, NBC’s Saturday Night Live, and Vice.
This means publishers can now upload 360 video to Facebook and starting today, people around the world will be able to discover and experience 360 videos in News Feed.
Disney and Lucasfilm are proud to debut an exclusive 360 experience from the upcoming movie STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS that brings fans inside the beloved universe.
This and the other examples showcase the range of possibilities for this new functionality.
According to Facebook’s announcement, users will eventually be able to follow their friends’ vacations intimately through this new video format – you’ll be able to look around an experience the video as though you were there.
This seems like a pivotal update for the hospitality industry as friends will be able to showcase their travel adventures in a new, immersive ways.
Creating the videos will be relatively easy, too.
To create 360 videos, a special set of cameras is used to record all 360 degrees of a scene simultaneously. This means that when the video is playing on Facebook, you can choose what angle you want to see it from.
On the web you can do this by dragging around the video with your cursor, and on mobile devices you do it by dragging with your finger — or even just by turning your device.
You’ll be able to hold up your phone and the 360 video will follow you as you turn, looking around, to experience things from all over the world like never before.
The announcement continues to note that if you’re using Facebook on the web or on Android, you should be able to see 360 videos in News Feed soon. It will be rolled 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.