The biggest video-sharing platform in the world arrives on the Gear VR with all new features and content.
Already a dominant application on the HTC Vive, PlayStation VR and Google Daydream platforms, Google’s immensely popular YouTube VR experience is now available on the Samsung Gear VR.
The long-awaited app is a welcomed sight for Gear VR owners, finally providing an alternative to the previous method which involved clumsily navigating to the official YouTube website through the Gear VR web browser.
With this new platform comes an exciting new tool as well: communal VR spaces. By clicking on the “Watch Together” icon located beneath the play controls on both the Google Daydream View and Samsung Gear VR, users can join their friends, or complete strangers, in online, shared VR rooms. While there, groups can watch, discuss, and share YouTube videos with one another in a private hangout setting.
Of course all these fancy features are useless without quality content. Thankfully, YouTube is giving users plenty of new 2D, 360, and VR180 content to watch together.
For a an in depth look into the the day in the life of global female leaders, including, but not limited to, activist, entrepreneur, and Olympic fencing bronze medalist, Ibtihaj Muhammad, check out The Female Planet series. The latest episode covers Ibtihaj’s journey to become the first Muslim-American woman to wear a hijab while competing for the U.S. in the Olympics.
Or you can head backstage with Portugal. The Man and Hayley Kiyoko as the VR180 Rockstar VR series takes you behind-the-scenes into the lives and minds of music’s great acts.
Maybe you’re more of an adrenaline junkey? SoKrispyMedia’s latest offering drops users into a chaotic video game adventure where one wrong move could mean an eternity in the digital world.
“VR can take you anywhere, and YouTube VR can bring you to more places in the virtual world than anywhere else,” spoke Erin Teague, VR Product Lead at YouTube, in an official blog post. “I’ve never been more excited about the next places VR storytellers, explorers and the community will take us — letting us experience them as if we’re actually there.”
No mention on whether or not we can expect to see YouTube VR on the Oculus Go anytime soon, though this Samsung Gear VR release gives hope that the application could eventually make its way to the standalone headset at some point in the future.
YouTube VR is available for free via the Oculus Store.
Image Credit: YouTube
