Prior to now YouTube users were restricted to watching flat narrow segments of the world, small slices of what’s happening as a daredevil fails to jump the ocean or a kitten careens into a monitor. But viewers no longer need wonder what it is the kitten flees, as Google have now added a feature to support 360˚ videos. If watching on a web browser they can simply tap or click the video and rotate the view. Users of the YouTube app for Android can also make use of their devices sensors to follow them as they turn.Support currently only extends to web browsers and the YouTube app for Android devices, although YouTube have announced their intentions to include the feature for iPads and iPhones.
The addition of this new feature isn’t surprising considering recent suggestions that Google are working on their own virtual reality OS, as the company would be looking to develop and test things like motion tracking and 360˚ vision that would be integral in such a project, and the popular video sharing site is a great way to get an opinion their solution on a variety of devices for a variety of content.
You can see a rundown of the new features, including instruction on how to upload 360˚ videos, here.
