The latest Google Cardboard update now means that Apple smartphone users can see any video they want in VR.
The most recent iOS update that has been released for Google Cardboard now means that the YouTube virtual reality viewing feature is now available to iPhone users for every video available on the massive database.
Before the release of this update, that iOS functionality had been limited to only a certain few 360 degree videos.
That said, users of Android based mobile devices have been able to enjoy the full YouTube virtual reality viewing functionality for quite some time. The Google Cardboard update has now finally granted the same ability to users of iPhones and iPads. The functionality is quite easy to use and requires the use of the Cardboard device in order to actually view it in the three dimensional format.
To enable the YouTube virtual reality viewing experience, there are a few simple steps to be taken on an iPhone.
Enabling Cardboard mode is a matter of playing the video and then tapping the screen. Of course, the user will need to have installed the latest version of the YouTube app for iOS before the options will become available.
From there, three dots appear in the upper right hand corner. Tapping those dots opens up an overlay which provides several options, of which Cardboard is one of them. Simply tapping the icon will automatically switch the playback mode into the virtual reality version that can be viewed with the Cardboard device or other compatible VR headset.
This announcement was made ahead of the Google I/O event that was held on Wednesday in which a spectrum of additional announcements were also made. That said, as this particular feature was already one that was in existence and that was merely being expanded to Apple mobile device users, the company didn’t hold off before announcing it to the world.
The YouTube virtual reality for iOS was expected to arrive at some point as Google introduced the SDK design for allowing seamless 360 degree video integration for developers back in March, suggesting it was on its way.