Facebook wants you to take a look around you. As announced in May, Facebook is now starting to support 360 photos in News Feed, allowing users to view photos uploaded and taken with 360-degree cameras on both their computers and mobile devices.
Just like with 360° videos hosted on Facebook, desktop users can click and drag the 360° photos to view different parts of the photo, while mobile users can swipe the photos or rotate their phones.
Most people don't have a 360-degree camera (at least not yet), so 360° photos are likely to come from panning on iOS and Samsung Galaxy phones. There are also 360-degree photo apps, like Photo Sphere , that let you easily take 360° photos with your phone.
You can upload a 360° photo to Facebook just like you would any other photo. Simply tap “Photo/Video” above the “What are you thinking?” box and select the 360° photo. It will appear in your News Feed just like a regular photo, but there will be a little compass icon in the corner, meaning you can explore the photo further.
If you have a phone that supports Samsung Gear VR (for example, a recent Samsung phone), you'll see an icon for viewing photos with the headset. Other smartphone users aren't so lucky, as Facebook doesn't support other headsets, like Google Cardboard, ostensibly due to Samsung's partnership with Facebook-owned Oculus VR.
Facebook is one of the first major services to host 360° media. Google-owned YouTube supports 360-degree video, and Yahoo's Flickr has a Flickr VR app for viewing 360° photos with VR headsets.
Big tech companies are also racing to complete the other side of the equation: creating 360° content. Facebook announced its 360° video camera at its developer conference, Google has its Jump platform, and Samsung recently released the Gear 360, a ball-shaped camera.
If the phenomenon becomes fashionable, we can soon say goodbye to the selfie stick and rejoice in 360° cameras.
