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Workaround for triggering Samsung Gear 360 with iPhone!

You read that headline right.  You CAN trigger the Samsung Gear 360 wirelessly with an iPhone, thanks to a workaround I found out from Gear 360 shooter Fabio Bersani!
Here’s how to trigger the Gear 360 with the iPhone:
1. Download the Google Street View app.  You may need to create a Google account, etc.
2. Turn on the Samsung Gear 360, then hold down the menu button.  When you see Gear 360 Manager, press the menu button twice to switch to “Google Street View.”  Then press the shutter button to select that option.
3. On your iPhone, connect to the new Wi-Fi network “Gear 360_(xx:xx).OSC”  Enter the password shown on the Gear 360’s display.
4.  Once the iPhone is connected, launch the Street View app.
5.  To take a photo, click on the camera button on the lower right corner.
That’s it! 
Here’s a shot for proof (the map has been warped for privacy):
It will will be both in the memory card as well as only be in your Photos / Camera Roll (not in your memory card).  The photo is already stitched, up to the full 30mp resolution:

There’s no live view and no video, and no controls other than triggering the shutter.  I saw an option for HDR but it doesn’t seem to do anything different.  There’s also an Auto Capture button.  Not sure exactly what it does.

For shooters with an established iPhone-based workflow and who are reliant on iOS apps such as Rollworld, this feature makes it much easier to take photos with the Gear 360 and have them ready in the iPhone for editing.

RELATED POSTS:
modified Gear 360 Manager app that can run on some Android phones.
– trigger the Gear 360 remotely with the dedicated Bluetooth shutter.
stitch on a Mac without 3rd party software

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Mic Ty

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    • Thanks Thom. The reason I described it as a workaround is because the Gear 360 is supposed to be triggered with Samsung phones, not iPhones. This is an indirect way of triggering the Gear 360 with an iPhone, although it works only for photo not video.

    • Dude, it's an app that uses software downloaded from the appstore. This is how the camera is used, when one has an iPhone. Sure, the software is from Google, but then Google provides the Gear360 for their Camera Loan project (which I'm taking part in). Calling this a "workaround" is like saying "Your car is made for freeways, but you can take surface streets and still get there." But that's not a workaround, that's what streets are for.

      My thing is, the GSV app is seriously not ready for prime time. Definitely a third-rate bodged-together heap of code that reminds iOS users how very NOT Samsung VIP preferred users they are.

      Issues with GSV include: quitting at random, automatic (interval) snapping is random, interval not adjustable and (as I'm using it on a bike), does not play nice with Strava, causing Strava to not record the GPS trace whenever GSV is processing a pic–or just not record the trace in general. There's more but GSV is a 2-star app in a 4-star box.

      I guess if we consider GSV betaware, using it might count as a workaround; even so; I get better results manually triggering the G360 when riding, and it STILL quits every few pics. That's a big deal because then each batch of pics counts as a sequence, which makes uploading a painstaking process.

    • Hey Dude. Good to have you back. Anyway, let's recall the context. I'm talking about using GSV to allow an iPhone to trigger a G360 camera. So first of all, your comment about "how the Gear 360 App actually works" is irrelevant. I'm not even talking about the Gear 360 app.

      Secondly, I don't agree with your analogy. A more appropriate analogy is that famous blue pill. Originally it was prescribed for angina and high blood pressure. It was only the patients who reported its "side effects" that made it famous. GSV's purpose is to take and upload photos for GSV (surprise). But I'm saying even if you don't care about uploading to GSV, an iPhone user can use GSV's app to take photos with the Gear 360 camera.

      In any case, who cares if I say it's a workaround and you disagree about that label? The point is to tell iPhone users that there's an app that they can use to trigger the Gear 360 camera. That's useful information, regardless of how you or I want to label it.

    • Thx for this great info! I actually have pretty good results and experiences with GSV. It is/was the only way to shoot decent 360s with an iPhone until I bought the Gear 360. Didn't know the Gear 360 offered the GSV interface.

  • Ok, this post is a bit bogus. I suspect Mic Ty now knows this. The only thing GSV can do is trigger the camera. It takes a shot in street view but…
    1. The shot is definitely not stitched (look carefully at his own example)
    2. Not saved ANY WHERE on the iphone

    • Dear ED,

      1. When you take a photo with the Gear 360, normally it looks like two circular fisheye photos. If you have a Gear 360, you can try it and read the Micro SD card from a memory card reader on your PC (not the app) and you will see this is true. But the image that the GSV takes on the iPhone is an equirectangular stitched image. THEREFORE IT DOES STITCH THE IMAGE.

      2. The stitch by GSV is rougher than the stitch on the Gear 360 app because GSV's stitch uses template based stitching while Gear 360 app uses optical flow stitching. Look it up.

      3. The photo taken by GSV DOES SHOW UP ON THE CAMERA ROLL.

      Sincerely,
      Mic

    • Dear ED, if you don't believe me, I am willing to bet you $1,000, or any amount of money you want (minimum of $100 so you don't waste my time), to demonstrate that this is true. My only condition is that you prove that you have the money and that you sign a contract for it. Sincerely, Mic

    • Hi Dexter. I can let you know what I do, and you can try to see if you're doing anything different:

      1. My iPhone is iPhone 6. My OS is 10.2.1
      2. I installed Google Street View version 2.8.1.
      3. I signed up for Street View (created a Google account, etc.).
      4. Follow the steps in the article.
      5. When you take a photo, give it a few seconds to stitch. When you see the stitched photo on your Street View app, check your camera roll – it will also be there.

      Best regards,
      Mic

      • Hey Mic,

        Great workaround – are all photos taken this way automatically public on GSV though? I want the ease of using my iPhone with this camera but don’t want the world to see my photos necessarily!

        Thanks
        Alex

        • Thanks Lexa. It’s not public until you “publish” so don’t worry as long you don’t accidentally press the publish button 😀

  • This was great workaround, works for me at least. Thanks! I was already a bit desperate with the software that came with the camera. Especially since my friend used the registration key, and apparently it's not transferrable.

    • p.s. the photo did not show on my camera roll at first either, you need to go to the GSV settings and swith on "Save to iPhoto library". It was off by default.

      • Great article – Works great with my iphone.

        Also thank you for this Panu – I also wasn’t getting a saved photo either until I looked at the Street View settings.

  • Thanks for this. Superb way of getting photos already stitched into the iPhone camera roll.

    Works for me.

    Much appreciated.

      • Looking at the comments above (some a bit grumpy I think!) there is only one thing my 2016 G360 / GSV / iPhone combo didn’t do.

        Yes the stitching isn’t as good and the edge colour blending isn’t as good as the pc app.

        But it does stitch.

        It doesn’t save to the camera roll by default – you have to turn it on in settings.

        Other than that all good.

        Although I don’t think the G360 quality is good enough – what is the general experience?

  • Thanks Mic! This helps a bit for sure..

    I liked the camera, I bought this 2016 model and wasn’t sure what to do!! coz there is no support for IPhone.
    Wish we had a full support for IPhone..

    However still appreciate your time taking to help us this way!! Take care buddy..