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 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.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(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.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]