Firefox Reality, Mozilla’s made-for-VR web browser, has been available on standalone devices for some time now, featuring support for Oculus Quest, Oculus Go, HTC Vive Focus, and Pico standalones. Now Mozilla has brought its WebXR-capable browser to PC VR headsets with its new PC Preview version.

Like with its standalone headset variant, Firefox Reality PC Preview supports standard 2D web browsing, 360 video, and immersive content.

Alongside native support for WebXR and WebVR content, Mozilla says the browser also contains “the same privacy and security that underpin regular Firefox on the desktop.”

If you’re viewing this article using Firefox Reality (download link below), you’ll be able to do some pretty cool stuff like chat with people in social VR through Mozilla Hubs, explore the nearly endless 3D objects hosted on Sketchfab, and take a tour of a host of immersive content through the Hello WebXR! app. Just click the links, pop on your VR headset (if you’re not already using it) and jump in.

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Firefox Reality PC Preview is available for download via Viveport, which includes support for SteamVR headsets such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive Cosmos, and Valve Index. Last year Mozilla mentioned it was working with Valve to bring a version to Steam.

The company says in a blog post that it has plans to both expand to other VR platforms as well as deliver updates that add more functionality and stability.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Torsten Balle Koefoed

    What a strange thing that they didn’t put it on Steam first… :-/

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    I don’t get why this is on Viveport when they could just make it an independent app like Firefox, but if not then I hope it comes to steam. I wonder if it’s because they don’t like steam. I talked to a dev who works on this and he seems to be really committed to VR being an open platform and sees WebXR as part of that… but he thinks Microsoft is the one who is in danger of taking over VR, not Facebook, which he hadn’t thought about. They seem kind of stuck in the past in that way.

    I love Firefox, it’s much better than chrome and doesn’t have any of the nonsense like weakening ad blockers, and they show how a non profit can really hold its own. I just hope that if they are going to get involved in VR that they can do as much as possible to keep this open and effective as possible.

    • The answer is: a partnership with HTC. As a result of the partnership, Mozilla launched on Viveport

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        That… sucks.

        • It’s weird it’s only coming to PCVR now?

          Had this on Daydream over 2 years ago, both Firefox Reality and chromeVR

          very cool browsing the web and doing webVR experiments, even had physical keyboard plugged into pixel XL using USB otg, for touch typing in VR ⌨️

          Looking forward to Firefox on PCVR, but hopefully from Steam. I installed Viveport to my PC recently to access Annecy Animation festival online and it caused… issues.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/288235281668d36b108ddc3b9b560603e30ff9c28e8363183944f8d658619cc0.jpg

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            I thought this had been in viveport for a few months actually, I could have sworn it was on there. Maybe in beta?

  • Mozilla is doing a great job in the WebXR space!

  • Rosko

    cool i want to explore web vr, i’ll wait for steam though.

  • Sofian

    Will we be able to watch youtube vr180 vr360 videos?
    The YT vr app on steam is totally broken.

  • News just come through 250 staff being laid off by Mozilla including XR team?

    • Mateusz Pawluczuk

      I’m afraid this will directly impact projects like Firefox Reality. Maybe they’ll put it on life-support so that at least we can keep using it in it’s current state.