Facebook has now officially added the ability to view and upload 360-degree photos on their News Feed. The social network announced that it was coming last month, and today the feature has become active. The feature is called “360 Photos,” but what it amounts to is images that offer 360-degree views. It’s similar to, but a bit different from 360 Video.
Facebook pushes out 360 Photo feature
The feature allows Facebook users to capture a panorama or 360-degree photo on their smartphones, using either the native camera app or a third-party app, and then post it to their Facebook News Feed. There, the photo is converted into an image that allows viewers to manipulate their view of the scene in what seems to be a very early attempt at dragging the average consumer into virtual reality. This is especially true for smartphone users because in order to change the viewing angle on 360-degree photos posted on Facebook, they can just move the device around.
Fittingly, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who isn’t a lizard, he says) was one of the first to share a 360-degree photo on the social network. He has posted several 360 photos on his wall. One is of the Facebook conference room, while another shows Leslie Odom Jr., a cast member of Hamilton: An American Musical, performing the song “Wait for It.” One photo he posted that has gone viral shows a 360-degree view of Manhattan. It was taken from the top of One World Trade Center by Michael Franz and Jonathan D. Woods for Time magazine.
It’s pretty easy to create, view and upload 360-degree photos on Facebook. There is a bit of a learning curve, however, so we’ve created this guide to help you get accustomed to the new feature as you try it out.
Guide To create, upload and view Facebook 360-degree photos (in points)
- Facebook Help states that you can upload a 360 Photo the same way you would upload any other photo.
- Keep in mind that if you upload a panorama that’s wider than 100 degrees, it will automatically be converted to a 360 Photo. You can only upload a single 360 Photo at a time on Facebook. (You can also upload a 180-degree panoramic photo)
- Not all panoramic photos you take from your smartphone or camera will be converted to Facebook 360-degree photos.
- In order to create 360-degree photos from your smartphone, you would need to have these devices or apps.
Camera support
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Ricoh Theta S
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Giroptic 360 Cam
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Samsung Gear 360
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LG 360 Cam
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IC Realtech ALLie
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360Fly
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Panono
iPhone or iPad support for 360-degree photos
Take panoramic pictures using one of the following:
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iPhone 4S or newer
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iPad mini 2 or newer
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iPad Air and iPad Air 2
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iPad Pro
Samsung Galaxy Phones
Take a panoramic photo using one of the following in Surround Shot or Panorama mode:
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Samsung Galaxy S5 or newer
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Galaxy Note 2 or newer
Photo Sphere Apps or Devices
Take a panorama using Street View, Google Camera, Cardboard Camera or Theta S.
Image-Stitching Software
Stitch images together using software like PTGui.
When you will share photos taken from the above apps or devices on Facebook, they’ll automatically be converted into a 360 Photo.
In order to view 360-degree photos on Facebook, you will need to install the latest version of Facebook, so if you haven’t updated your Facebook app yet, you can do it now (Android and iOS). You can also view the 360-degree photos from the Desktop version of the social media website.
Here are some 360-degree photos you can view at Facebook
If you have any questions regarding this topic or anything related to Facebook 360-degree photos, please feel free to contact me on Facebook or email me at [email protected].
Michelle Jones, Senior Editor at ValueWalk, also contributed to this post.
