Flickr launches virtual reality 360-degree photo app for Samsung Gear VR

Flickr is diving into the world of virtual reality in order to provide you with a new photo experience. The company has launched a virtual reality app for the Samsung Gear VR device called Flickr VR, which promises to give you a more immersive way to enjoy the tens of thousands of 360-degree photos that are shared to the site.

This new app will only work with 360-degree photos that are shared to Flickr. When you open up the app, you’ll be presented with the top curated images. Choose one and you’ll “instantly be transported to another place and time,” such as watching the Aurora Borealis at night from Finland or seeing the Horseshoe Bend in Arizona.

While Flickr does support 360-degree videos on its site, what it hopes to pass along is that experience that you’re there, something that looking at it on a screen and scrolling about using your mouse just doesn’t really do. But when you put on that VR headset, it almost feels like you’re there as you move your head left and right, up and down to trick yourself that you’ve teleported around the world with just a tap of a button.

The new Flickr app is supported by Samsung Gear VR, but there are plans to expand this and add new features for other VR headsets, the Web, and mobile devices in the future.