Virtual Reality Arrives on WordPress

Native virtual reality support is coming to WordPress, the Web publishing platform that powers everything from small-time blogs to major sites like CNN and Best Buy.

WordPress is starting small with VR, initially making 360-degree photos available to its users, along with a beta experiment for 360-degree videos. The WordPress VR viewer(Opens in a new window) is powered by WebVR(Opens in a new window), itself an experimental bit of code designed to offer in-browser access to content intended for VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR ($69.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , or Google Cardboard.

The end result is an experience very similar to what you’d expect from Google Street View, at least on a desktop browser. You click the play icon on a VR-enabled photo to load the viewer, and then you can click and drag around the scene. There’s also an option to go full screen.

If you’re browsing on a mobile device, though, you can tap on a button in the lower-right corner of the photo to enter VR mode. Slip your phone into a Google Cardboard viewer, and you can look around the 360-degree sphere just by moving your head.

While plenty of closed-source websites have implemented the WebVR API or something similar, WordPress support is notable because it will let bloggers experiment with the format by dropping in a few lines of code, rather than building a VR viewer from scratch. Of course, they’ll also need a way to take 360-degree photos and videos, such as the Google Street View app(Opens in a new window).

Casual photographers who don’t have a website, meanwhile, may find it easier to simply upload their shots to Facebook. The social network added support for 360 photos in July.