Facebook Messenger adds support for 360 photos, HD video
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Facebook on Tuesday announced it's adding support for 360 degree photos, panoramic photos, and HD video to Messenger.
To send a 360 degree photo, a user can capture the photo using a 360-degree app or camera and share it on the messaging platform like a normal photo. The recipients can view the entire image by tapping and dragging it, moving their phone, or viewing it on Messenger.com by clicking and dragging.
Users can share HD-quality, 720p videos that are saved on their phone as well as videos on their Facebook newsfeed or in another message thread.
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Facebook's 360 degree photos are available globally on iOS and Android. High-def quality videos are available in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, and the US on iOS and Android.
Earlier this year, Facebook noted that communication on Messenger is increasingly visual. The platform hosted 17 billion video chats in 2017, twice as many as compared to 2016. The company has been growing its data center footprint and building the infrastructure it needs, such as a disaggregated network system, to accommodate more immersive content, such as live video, 360 photos and virtual reality.
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