A visitor tries a pair of VR glasses with a smartphone at the Google digital workshop stand at the Labour party Conference in Brighton, Britain, September 24, 2017
(REUTERS/Toby Melville)
Google Chrome now lets you browse the web in virtual reality.
The functionality exists for any website you visit through the browser, but only if you’re using your mobile phone.
The new feature has been expected for some time, though it’s likely to split opinion.
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Some webpages will undoubtedly lend themselves to the VR experience better than others.
The VR version of a page that’s heavy on text, for instance, will be neither exciting or especially easy to scan quickly.
A webpage with a 360-degree video or game, on the other hand, could be much more compelling.
You have to be on Chrome 61 to access the feature, but even then you also need to have one of Google’s Daydream View headsets.
“So far this allows users to view and interact with any website in VR, follow links between pages, and move between 2D and immersive viewing for sites that support WebVR,” said Chromium evangelist François Beaufort.
You can, however, try it out in Chrome Canary, an experimental and unstable version of the browser, right now.
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