Facebook roles out 360-degree videos in News Feed

FBtutorial.com — Starting Sept. 23 this 2015 year, Facebook begins rolling out 360-degree videos in News Feed. This new feature comes after years of Facebook’s understanding of  the way people enjoy immersive content in their News Feeds.

According to FB Newsroom, “our goal [at Facebook] is to connect you with the people and things that matter, every single day. Over time, we’ve seen that people enjoy more immersive content in their News Feeds. This is one reason video has been so successful on Facebook, and we’re excited to take it a step further with 360 video.”

How to Create 360 Videos for Facebook

To create 360 videos, a special set of cameras is used to record all 360 degrees of a scene simultaneously. This means that when the video is playing on Facebook, you can choose what angle you want to see it from. On the web you can do this by dragging around the video with your cursor, and on mobile devices you do it by dragging with your finger — or even just by turning your device. You’ll be able to hold up your phone and the 360 video will follow you as you turn, looking around, to experience things from all over the world like never before.

Why 360 degree Videos on Facebook?

In the future, imagine watching 360 degree videos of a friend’s vacation to a small village in France or a festival in Brazil — you’ll be able to look around and experience it as if you were there. Along with updates from your friends and family, you will also be able to discover amazing new content on Facebook from media companies, organizations, and individual creators.

Pages using 360 Videos on Facebook

According to FB Newsroom, there are a number of publishers sharing new 360 videos on Facebook today, including Star Wars, Discovery, GoPro, LeBron James & Uninterrupted, NBC’s Saturday Night Live, and VICE. These videos help show the range of possibilities with this new medium. For example, Disney and Lucasfilm are debuting an exclusive 360 experience from its upcoming movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens, bringing fans inside the beloved Star Wars universe.

Who uses 360-degree Videos

According to Facebook, there’s [also] a whole world of video creators and storytellers who are at the cutting edge of exploring this medium, and over the coming days they too will be able to upload their 360-degree videos to Facebook. We’re excited to see more innovative and compelling 360 videos being shared from these publishers.

When to expect seeing 360 Videos in your Newsfeed

If you’re using Facebook on the web or on Android, you should be able to see 360-degree videos in News Feed soon. We plan to roll this out for iOS in the coming months.

It’s early days, but we’re excited about the possibilities for 360 video and hope it helps people explore the world in new, immersive ways.