Great news for retailers, designers, travel companies, and anyone else whose apps or websites could be improved with the addition of a 360-degree photo or virtual reality tour: Google Inc. has made embedding immersive imagery easy with VR View.
For website developers, using the new service is as simple as typing in an iframe that specifies the image or video you want it show, as with the underwater sample image that Google released:
The new feature is compatible with modern versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer 11; and for app developers, supported by iOS 8 or Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) and above, though as of March 30 it had a few issues with displaying 360 degree videos on iOS or Safari.
With some additional coding, developers can also use VR View to optimize images for Google’s Cardboard app (which, as of March 30, is now available for iPhones as well).
Google is making its VR View code open-source, so it’s likely that developers will new ways to improve and apply it in the coming months.
In the meantime, penny-pinching real estate agents no longer have any excuse – tech-wise, anyway – for not providing prospective buyers with a true virtual tour.