Look out, YouTube fans. Soon, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in videos that go all the way around. Google has just confirmed to Gizmodo that it will be adding native support for 360-degree videos to its streaming video service.
That means you should eventually, theoretically be able to take all the crazy footage you’re capturing with new cameras like the Ricoh Theta, Kodak SP360, Giroptic 360cam, VSN V.360, Bublcam and more, and share those moments with your friends through YouTube. Assuming YouTube figures out a way to take the results from those rather differently shaped cameras and make them work. From what we hear, that’s the goal.
We don’t have any details from Google yet, only a statement from a YouTube spokesperson that provides a vague timeframe for when we might see the feature roll out: “Ever wanted to get 360 perspectives on a video to see everything going on? That’s why we’re working to support 360-degree videos in the coming weeks.”
Where these videos could get really interesting is when you can view them in virtual reality. Samsung just launched its Milk VR service to provide 360-degree videos for the Gear VR headset, but YouTube and Google Cardboard could make for a potent combination too.