Flickr has introduced a new feature to its photo sharing service that gives user a 360-degree virtual reality experience through Samsung Gear VR.
Being called Flickr VR, the app adds a whole new layer of super-immersive fun to the Yahoo-owned photo sharing service, says Digital Trends. The app introduces a wide array of 360-degree photos that give virtual reality experience to its users.
Principal Engineer, Bertrand Fan, wrote in a blog post that Flickr has accumulated tens of thousands of 360 photos to date. From immersive images of the Aurora Borealis in Finland to the Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado River, Flickr's virtual reality app transports users to different places through projected reality.
Flickr further adds that more features will be added soon including the ability for Flickr to automatically detect if photos being uploaded are 360-degree and then enable the VR viewer on the page. PC News reports that the experience can also be viewed on browsers, but will not be as immersive.
Last month, Samsung Gear VRs started shipping out in the US and Oculus referred to that moment as "a historic moment for VR." The move by Samsung and Facebook-owned Oculus aims to provide affordable access to virtual reality for consumers.
The Samsung Gear VR headset can be purchased at only $99 and is compatible with Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Edge+, and Note 5 smartphones. Samsung also recently released an online browser for the headset, giving users of the wearable access to online video streaming services like YouTube.
Flickr says that this is just the beginning for the new VR application, as the company also aims to create gesture-sensitive user interfaces that would let users browse photo libraries and organise their photos using simple hand gestures. The team behind the app also hope to see more immersive 360-degree photos be uploaded by their users.
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