Facebook starts support for live streaming 360-degree images

Facebook has announced that it will support live streaming of 360-degree videos starting Tuesday. The first live stream will be provided by National Geographic as residents of the Mars Desert Research Station are let out.

The live streams work in the same way as existing 360-degree videos. Users can watch the videos on a computer in the browser and control them with the mouse. On a smartphone, they can drag a finger over the video or rotate the phone.

The feature will be shown on National Geographic’s Facebook page at 9 p.m. Tuesday. Then the residents of the Mars Desert Research Station will be allowed to go outside for the first time, after eighty days of simulating life on Mars.

After the reveal by National Geographic, other pages won’t be able to take advantage of the feature right away. Facebook indicates that it will become available for an unknown number of other pages in the coming months and will be used by all pages and profiles in 2017.