WebVR is an API that brings Virtual Reality into The Web. It provides access to a number of VR Devices like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Google Cardboard in your web browser. This platform gained a lot of attention after the W3C workshop on The Web and Virtual Reality which was held last month. Google, then announced the company’s plans to ship Chrome’s public version of Chrome on Android with the support for WebVR 1.1
Google Chrome supports WebVR
WebVR is being slowly trending and is being considered to involve a coherent set of guidelines, features. They have the best practices to implement VR as well as AR. As we all know, recently, San Jose hosted a 2-day conference on W3C Workshop on The Web and Virtual Reality. Technology Giants like Google, Samsung, Microsoft and Mozilla collaborated with WebVR. The motive of the collaboration was to discuss various aspects of latest developments and WebVR’s ecosystem.
Megan Lindsay, WebVR’s product manager at Google made the big announcement at this Conference. Apparently, the team has been working towards a public release of Chrome on Android which supports the latest WebVR 1.1 features. A beta version of this will be launched in December and the stable release will be made in January. Furthermore, the company also aims at releasing it for DayDream. Will the update be restricted only for Google’s Pixel phone users or Will it be compatible with all Android devices? This Question is still unanswered.
After the release, the browser will be compatible with WebVR’s content built on WebVR 1.1 Spec. As a result, users can pop their phones into a Google Cardboard or a DayDream to a headset to experience VR without the addition of any apps. Since the work is still underway, early 2017 will witness limited public release as said by Lindsay. However, the company will continue to work on Chrome’s ‘VR Shell’. This allows 2D websites which are not built for WebVR to be browsed in VR.
Therefore, we can expect a lot from this update. Meanwhile, you can also read about the camp by WebVR which was held recently in Hyderabad. Keep reading this space for release specifications and an after release review of the update.
