WordPress users now have the ability to upload and share VR and 360-degree content right from their WordPress websites.

WordPress VR support is important, as it will allow bloggers and website administrators to play around with the technology via the insertion of a few lines of code, as opposed to having to build a VR viewer from scratch.

The WordPress VR experience is very similar to what you’d expect from Google Street View (you need an application that supports 360-degree photos and videos to use the technology, like the Google Street View app). You click the play icon on a VR-enabled photo to load the viewer, and then you can click and drag around the scene. There’s also an option to go full screen (on desktop). On mobile, you simply slip your phone into a VR viewer like Google Cardboard, and you can look around the 360-degree sphere just by moving your head.

The technology is designed to work on VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, or Google Cardboard.

To add VR to a WordPress website, currently you can either use a plugin like WP-VR-view or by manually inserting code snippets into the website.

From a business side, my assumption is that the early adopters of this WordPress tech will be the same industries that are early adopting VR: real estate, healthcare, events, education, automotive, advertising, space, tourism, military and law enforcement, and skilled trade. This is great news for companies that already built their site on WordPress and are looking to take advantage of VR technology.

This is certainly the tip of the iceberg in terms of WordPress VR functionality; I’m looking forward to future VR updates from WordPress.