YouTube goes 360 degrees, includes a new theatre mode on app

The largest video community makes viewing virtual reality videos possible

Now, you can experience content on Virtual Reality (VR), or an immersive multimedia and computer-simulated life, through YouTube. The world’s largest video community has joined tech giants constantly working to immerse users of virtual reality content. 

VR replicates an environment that simulates physical presence in places in the real world and lets the user interact in that world. It artificially creates sensory experiences like sight, hearing, touch or smell. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world and experience quite life-like.

Oculus VR was the first company to host a kick-starter campaign for the technology. 

According to the tech website Digital Trends, YouTube’s parent company Google had begun posting 360-degree videos in March this year; now it fully supports those. The content requires a Google Cardboard-compatible smartphone. Alternatively, users can slip their phones into their Cardboard headsets and enjoy some of the content that exists. In addition to incorporating support for the fledgling tech, the search giant had also announced that Google Cardboard now featured a theatre mode. With this update, you can watch any YouTube video in a virtual theatre environment.

VR video is still a niche market and the various creators spread their content through different websites. But none of these can match the size of the YouTube audience. 

YouTube recently announced two new features for its Android app that expand the video site’s use of virtual reality, giving the new technology its biggest platform yet.

The application now supports VR video, giving the viewers what the company calls more realistic 360-degree perspectives of films. To view these, a user will have to call a virtual reality video on the YouTube app, click a button on the video for VR mode, and place the phone in Alphabet Inc’s “Cardboard” device, a handheld gadget made from the standard box material that creates a VR-viewing experience.

The new features are seen taking the global video subscriber segment by storm. Bringing VR to homes is like making the wish of being at multiple places come true. The concept has a lot of potential and might turn out to be a winner for YouTube, but it remains to be seen how long it will take to tap an active VR video consumer base in India.