The browser is aimed primarily at content consumption and casual browsing of the Internet. Samsung Internet for Gear VR lets users enjoy an “immersive atmosphere” of web viewing without having to download content to their smartphones.
Webpages can be supplied with textual input via an on-screen keyboard or built-in voice recognition from the headset. Menus can be selected just by looking at them in Gaze Mode, something Samsung says can make web browsing more intuitive and relaxing than having to tap on a screen or click small links.
The app can directly stream 360-degree and 3D videos from HTML5 content sources such as Twitch. The output in the headset changes direction as you move your head and navigate around the 360-degree footage.
Chan-Woo Park, Samsung’s Vice President of Product Strategy Team in IT & Mobile, described the web browser as a new industry standard, saying: “As a pioneer in the mobile VR industry, Samsung has continually worked to provide our users with a fully immersive mobile experience in the evolving world of virtual reality. As the demand for 360-degree, immersive video content rapidly rises, Samsung Internet for Gear VR further enriches the VR content ecosystem for our consumers, setting an industry standard for the VR viewing experience.”
It’s expected that more options for performing common tasks like web browsing will be available on VR headsets in the future. Currently, the technology is still emerging though and there are relatively few developers working on building VR experiences.
Once headsets are more widely available and sales begin to take off, it seems probable that more VR-friendly apps will be created, including versions of popular desktop web browsers such as Google Chrome. In the meantime, Samsung Internet for Gear VR could be a limited look into the future of web browsing when every experience is immersive and video can completely surround you.
Samsung’s new browser can be downloaded from the Oculus Store from today. Supported Samsung devices with the Gear VR include the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, Note 4 and Note 5.
