‘Flickr VR’ app for Gear VR lets you jump into thousands of 360-degree photos

By Trevor Mogg December 10, 2015

flickr marketplace photo stock photography vr — Flickr

Flickr’s latest move to jazz up its photo-sharing service involves giving users the chance to explore “tens of thousands” of 360-degree images using Samsung’s Gear VR virtual reality headset.

The super-immersive experience is offered via its just-launched “Flickr VR” app, adding a new layer of fun to the Yahoo-owned photo site.

Open the app and you’ll be immediately met with a carousel of the top curated 360-degree photos. Select one that takes your fancy and in a flash you’ll be transported to another world that you can explore in every direction.

“From Aurora Borealis in the glowing night sky in Finland to Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River in Arizona, people who view Flickr 360-degree photos for the first time do not want to take the Samsung Gear VR off,” Flickr said in a post about the new app.

You can view the images on the Web, too, using the cursor to view the wrap-around scene, but of course the experience is nothing compared to what you’ll get with the headset.

Flickr says its new VR app is “just the beginning,” with more virtual reality features promised for the site. These could include an advanced gesture-based user interface that would let users browse their photo libraries and organize images using hand movements and other virtual reality interactions, Flickr engineer and project lead Bertrand Fan said earlier this year.

The Galaxy VR headset only costs $100 and got a great write-up when we reviewed it last month. However, you’ll need a Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge Plus, or Note 5 to use it.

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