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YouTube expands its VR app to Samsung's Gear VR device and lets you watch videos with strangers
YouTube is expanding its virtual reality app to support Samsung's Gear VR devices, and it's also adding a new feature that lets users watch a video together and chat. If you own a Gear VR device, you'll be able to download the app from the Oculus Store beginning this week, Google announced today in a blog post.
YouTube has been conspicuously absent from the Oculus Store, and it's been a significant selling point for Google's Daydream VR platform, although it's also available on PlayStation VR headsets, and Oculus Rift or HTC Vive users can access it through SteamVR. You could access YouTube through the Gear VR's web browser, but this update still closes a notable gap in the Gear VR's video ecosystem. YouTube doesn't mention supporting Oculus' new mobile device, the standalone Oculus Go.
Users can now also party up with friends or strangers to watch and chat about videos together in a VR space. In the example YouTube gave, users can ride a virtual car together or watch other VR videos. To access the feature, tap the Watch Together icon located under the play controls on your Daydream View or Gear VR headset.
Meanwhile, Facebook has added a "Watch Party" feature that syncs video streams and adds a chat box.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday July 27 2018, @10:36AM (2 children)
they keep using that word.
I suppose, by their definition, everyone on SN is "together".
Now someone pass me a beer.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday July 27 2018, @10:57AM (1 child)
*Passes virtual beer* Now watch out for that virtual hangover!
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Friday July 27 2018, @12:33PM
Thanks! And a virtual beer [ratebeer.com] for you, too!
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @02:16PM (2 children)
Second-rate not-quite good enough shit VR products are the reason the first wave of consumer VR devices failed to break into the mass market. I'd really appreciate if a large company like Samsung put in some effort to come up with a device that's at least as good as the Vive/Oculus. They could probably do it cheaper too...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 27 2018, @04:17PM
Well, you can go a lot lower. Down to the Cardboard level, or those $10-15 cheap headsets you see advertised in the paper.
I think that the Gear VR approach is a good idea. What do most people have on their body at all time? A smartphone. They can tuck the empty headset into a backpack or wherever. The resulting headset is standalone, uses your existing data connection, etc. All Samsung has to do is improve the capabilities of the phone in order to make Gear VR better. That could mean releasing a flagship that does a maximum 90-120 Hz instead of 60. They could up the resolution from the 2960×1440 of the Galaxy S9(+). The aspect ratio of the phone has already widened to 18.5:9, which should improve field of view when inserted into a headset. If they ever make a two screen folding phone like they've teased, they could use that to potentially double the field of view (won't work if the large side of the phone is the hinge).
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 27 2018, @06:08PM
Here's a phone that went even wider: OnePlus 6 [anandtech.com] with a whopping 19:9 aspect ratio (6.28-inch 2280×1080).
21:9, anyone?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday July 27 2018, @03:48PM (3 children)
The examples in the linked google article were pretty cringy, I'm not gonna throw down a kilobuck to experience "NPR and Jezebel, now in 3d"
How about, WRT
then try pr0n, moonman videos, pr0n, pr0n, pr0n, and then more pr0n? That might actually work?
The stuff that gives you good boy points for mentioning on tumblr isn't very appealing in the real world.
Aside from pr0n, you can sell anything to sports nerds as long as its sports nerd related, but the major leagues have this weird thing about chicken and the egg not to mention broadcast rights revenue, such that you'll probably never see extensive VR from the perspective of a football lineman or a F1 race car driver. Maybe the occasional stunt but not enough content generation to make putting on the helmet a part of every day life like carrying a phone has become.
My experience so far with Google Cardboard and Google Expeditions app is its very much this generation's "Second Life" in that if you can't entertain yourself with it for more than two hours there's something wrong with you, while at the same time the content is repetitive enough that there's also something wrong with you if you entertain yourself for more than perhaps twenty hours. Either something wrong or you're significantly better (or worse?) at finding stuff than most people. There's also the joy of early 80s home computer era market segmentation such that the odds of you and some buddy having the same experience are almost nil unless you previously coordinate the purchase of identical hardware. PS4VR is somewhat more fun but even that tends to sit on the shelf after maybe 10x the mentioned number of hours. The first hour of VR Eve Valkyrie is cooler than the first hour of non-VR Elite Dangerous, but I've got maybe 20x the number of hours in Elite than in Eve Valkyrie.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 27 2018, @04:06PM (2 children)
There are over 7 billion videos on YouTube so it really doesn't matter what examples TFA or the blog post picked. It doesn't explicitly say that the feature will work with 2D videos (all examples are 360°) but they would rather you look at some of the 99.99% of 2D content than leave, so...
For 2D content viewed using a VR headset, just think of it as "theater" mode.
I also know that the social feature will get used (insofar as people actually own and use the VR headsets) because similar third party video sync + chat sites have been used for years.
You could imagine that as long as you have the freedom to use any software with your VR device, there will eventually be an "app" that does the exact same thing, but with the ability to use a variety of video sites, porn, and "illegal" streaming tv/movie sites. Yes, some people will watch porn while talking to each other... just look at ChatRoulette.
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(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday July 27 2018, @04:18PM (1 child)
I remember doing that in Second Life about 15 years ago. It did work. But you can't run an industry off perhaps 20 individual customers.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 27 2018, @04:37PM
I'm thinking the experience will be less like Second Life and more like:
http://sync.theater/ [sync.theater]
https://sync-video.com/ [sync-video.com]
https://www.watch2gether.com/?lang=en [watch2gether.com]
Except with some of the fancy VR stuff and maybe voice chat. In essence, similar to having a Skype call where everyone buffers a video at 0:00 and presses play at the same time.
The real question is whether VR headsets catch on in general, not this app (which should not be considered a "killer app" by any stretch of the imagination). I have made a submission [soylentnews.org] on that.
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