In September, YouTube announced plans to launch its VR application on the Oculus Go platform. Making good on its promise, the company has finally launched YouTube VR on Oculus.
The YouTube VR app will now be available on the Oculus Store. The app is already available for platforms such as Samsung Gear VR, Sony PlayStation VR, Google Daydream VR, and various desktop VR headsets, and with this latest announcement, YouTube will significantly increase the reach of its future-looking application. Including the SteamVR app for Oculus Rift, all of Oculus applications now have a YouTube app available on them.
Interestingly, Oculus Go has a casting feature that will allow people to stream their VR experiences to friends on mobile devices or TVs. This will again serve to increase the reach of YouTube’s VR app.
Coming to the application itself, YouTube’s VR app offers support for 360-degree video and standard video in a VR theater. The app also lets people watch videos socially, meaning that they can watch videos with friends and family who are also wearing a compatible VR headset.
What remains to be seen, is whether YouTube’s platform acquisition will continue at this rate. Oculus is launching a flagship Quest device next spring, and it will be interesting to see if it ships with support for the VR app out of box.
