360 Camera News and Info

Facebook Messenger now supports 360 photos!

Facebook Messenger now supports 360 photos
Facebook Messenger now supports 360 photos

You can now send 360 photos via Facebook Messenger, and your family and friends will be able to see them in 360 within the Messenger app, in full resolution!

Facebook updated their Messenger app to allow you to share 360 photos within Messenger!  No longer will you have to upload the 360 photo to a 360 photo sharing site.  Instead, you simply share a 360 photo the same way you share a regular non-360 photo.  As long as you see the 360 logo on the bottom right corner, that means Messenger recognizes the photo as 360.  Your recipient will see an equirectangular thumbnail and when they click on it, they will see a 360 photo in full resolution!

Facebook Messenger now supports 360 photos
Facebook Messenger now supports 360 photos

This functionality works for other apps that have built-in sharing via Messenger.  For example, in the Google Photos app, you can find a 360 photo, tap on share, and choose messenger.  The recipient will see the 360 photo!

This is great news for the 360 industry because it will make sharing so much easier!  You simply have to export your photo in stitched equirectangular 360 format and it will be just as shareable as a regular non-360 photo.  In fact, there are already a few cameras that can automatically stitch 360 photos in-camera, such as the Ricoh Theta V.  For those cameras, sharing is as simple as sending the file to your family and friends, just like a regular non-360 photo!

Thank you very much to Pepe Vazquez and Frederic Sidler for bringing this news to my attention!  Start sharing your best 360 photos via Messenger!

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Mic Ty

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  • After all the shocking news regarding Cambridge Analytics I can only highly recommend NOT to use Facebook services.

    • I truly like using/sharing 360˚ photo’s on facebook and messenger. Previously I shared the link to an existing facebook 360˚ photo in messenger but this is soo much better and faster.

      P.S. Oliver: The company is called Cambridge AnanlyticA and yes one must be careful sharing personal data. Misusing our blind trust is bad but also avoidable by not clicking agree to every (unread) online form you get presented. Many here rely on facebook for sharing/selling 360˚ content as it is the biggest platfrom supporting both photos and videos in that format.

      • Yes you are right. BUT your registration data is open for all!!!
        Do you know something about data protection??
        “sign your soul away to the devil” I think in one year Facebook is history…..
        Best regards from Germany

        • Hi Axel. For me, I use Facebook as if it is public even if my profile is private. So I only show information that I don’t mind the whole world seeing.

          Best regards,
          Mic

    • Hi Pete. IIRC, Facebook doesn’t support 3D 360 photos, although they support 3D 360 videos. You can instead try Orbix360 or Kuula, which support 3D 360 photos. Orbix also supports VR180 photos.