The 360-degree live stream can be viewed via a virtual reality Google Cardboard headset and also through YouTube’s standard desktop app, allowing viewers to navigate the presentation’s 360-degree view within a browser.
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Allowing anyone with a $15 Cardboard viewer to watch virtual reality videos on YouTube is actually a pretty big deal – Cardboard has been hailed as perhaps the most affordable way for anyone to experience virtual reality, and a big part of that is watching videos in VR. The new functionality can either be used to watch 360-degree content or watch regular YouTube videos in a movie theater-equivalent viewing using Google Cardboard.
If it’s a normal video, click on the “more” icon on the top right corner of the screen. Previously, only certain YouTube videos supported VR mode. However, the new Google VR headset will be made of a more expensive and, will be made of, a more rigid material than cardboard, according to CNet.
As already mentioned, the new Android N, which is set to succeed Android M, is already available in developer preview mode. Now anything on YouTube, even if it is not a 360 or VR video, can be viewed in VR mode. So far, it has been a bit of a pain to install beta updates for applications downloaded from the Google Play Store, because users had to get them from third party sources and to enable the Unknown Sources option. This week Google will also reportedly launch an Android VR platform at its Google I/O developer conference starting on May 18, Wednesday.
While some have speculated that the rumored “Android VR” is an all-in-one headset being developed by Google, I don’t see Google taking such an approach (at least not at I/O 2016). Meanwhile, Gear VR is on the entry-level side.
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Clicking on the placeholder did not produce any results. Making the smartphone the key to Android’s VR experience gives customers a major reason to switch to an Android smartphone and serves Google’s key objective of helping hardware partners to sell phones (and soon, headsets). In addition, Engadget co-founder Peter Rojas tweeted that Android VR will be announced during this week but will be less powerful than the Rift and Vive VR devices.
