For the past ten years, Facebook users have been sharing photos of their kids, cats, dogs, food they’re about to eat and family vacations. Literally,Hundreds of millions of photos are shared on Facebook each day by all. It’s a phenomenal visual display of photos ranging from the mediocre to acceptable. Businesses have shared candid snapshots of team members at various events and placed ad campaigns on their company Facebook pages, but very little in terms of innovation has been developed.
Today, Facebook announced in its newsroom a new tool that will make sharing 360 photos also known as panoramic photos an easy and simple task.
This is how it works:
Set your phone camera to panorama or capture a 360-degree photo using a 360 photo app or 360 camera, and then post it on Facebook as you would with any other normal photo. No new tricks to learn or new app to download. Facebook will take your photo and convert it to a mesmerizing 360 photo that people can explore and engage with, reminiscent to how people alreay experience 360 videos on Facebook. Once your photo is posted, locate photos marked with the compass icon, tap it and view the photo in full screen. And that’s it.
But where it gets really fun is if you are viewing the photos on a Samsung Gear VR–compatible smartphones. There’s nothing like virtual reality to bring an image to life. A button marked “View in VR” on the left corner of the screen will appear. Tap it and your 360 photo will be viewed in VR. It could be a useful tool to bring to life a concern or a live event that your friends weren’t able to attend or for business looking to do cross-marketing.
Facebook has launched a Facebook 360 Community group to be a part of the daily 360 and VR conversation and a help page too.
What do you think of this latest 360 VR photo innovation? Send us your insight and we would love to hear it!
