Facebook Flips The Switch On 360-Degree Photos

Facebook's previously announced 360-degree photos support has gone live. Starting today, users can upload 360-degree panoramas to their Facebook account for their friends to see on desktop or mobile. When browsing Facebook, you'll know if you've come across a 360-degree photo due to a small compass icon that'll be placed on its right side. That aside, uploading 360-degree photos isn't any harder than uploading an ordinary photo.

When you come across a 360-degree photo on Facebook, you can scroll through it to see the image in an interactive, somewhat realistic way. If you're viewing on your phone, this is as simple as moving your phone around; if you're on desktop, you'll need to click and drag inside of the photo, or use your finger if the laptop has a touchscreen.

Capturing those photos isn't very difficult, either. If you're using your phone, you'll need to download a 360-degree photo app like Google Cardboard Camera (your phone's camera app may have a feature built in, though, so be sure to check). Or you can use a dedicated 360-degree camera like the Ricoh Theta S (check out our review!)

Some notable 360-degree photos have already been published. NASA, for example, has one taken inside of the International Space State here. If that's not your thing, here's one taken at the front of a stage during a Paul McCartney concert. This is only one of several recent changes at Facebook — check out the timeline below for more news!

SOURCE: Facebook