At Facebook’s F8 conference which kicked off today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage to open the event. There he revealed that the company will bring support for 360 degree video to the Facebook News Feed, capable of playback on the Oculus Rift. Further, the company is experimenting with live 360 VR video, which they are showing off at the event today at the ‘Teleportation Station’.

Zuckerberg opened his presentation saying that as time moves forward, communication on Facebook increasingly happens with richer media. At first it was text and today photos are a significant means of communication. Five years down the road, Zuckerberg said, it will be video. And beyond that, even more immersive media like AR and VR.

To that end the company, which famously (or infamously, depending upon who you ask) acquired Oculus for $2 billion a year ago, will be adding preliminary support for 360 video which would also feature support for the Oculus Rift, Zuckerberg said.

No date was specified for when Facebook would add 360 video support, nor whether Oculus Rift playback would be part of the initial rollout. It also wasn’t communicated how users would be expected to capture such video, though there are a number of 360 degree consumer cameras currently in development.

See Also: YouTube Now Supports 360 Video, No VR Support (Yet)

Further, Zuckerberg said that the company is experimenting with live 360 video. At the event developers can try out what he called the “humorously named” ‘Teleportation Station’, which would allow users to don a VR headset and view live video taken at the F8 conference.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Curtrock

    I’m surprised the FB haters haven’t chimed in yet, ranting about how Oculus sold out, and how FB will be ruining VR with pop up adverts & their evil data mining, etc. Moving fwd, if even a small fraction of FB users are converted to VR, the sales of whatever device will facilitate VR via FB Timeline, will be off-the-charts. I suspect Oculus is playing their own game, and while others declare them leap-frogged by Valve, they are quietly securing world dominion over VR.
    * just my 2 cents
    ** the SteamVR looks kick-ass and I am sooooo going to buy 1