The first 360-degree videos on Twitter appeared last night during Game 1 of the NBA Finals, showing Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry arriving at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif.
The videos were made possible courtesy of a partnership between Samsung and the NBA, The Verge reports. They were shot using Samsung Gear 360 cameras and uploaded to the Web—though not Twitter itself.
The NBA tweeted links to the pre-game 360 shots, but you have to click through to view them. You can then click and drag to get the vantage point you want as Curry walks through the parking garage and into the arena.
@StephenCurry30 arrives for Game 1 of the #NBAFinals. #Gear360 presented by @SamsungMobileUS https://t.co/kwxerqlAdV — NBA (@NBA) June 3, 2016
The experience and the content are slightly underwhelming. Facebook already has native 360-degree content that doesn't require you to leave the platform to view, such as this incredible shot of Grand Central Terminal that Mark Zuckerberg uploaded recently.
For basketball fans, the content was rather boring, too. That's partly due to the limitations of the technology—it would be very cool, but perhaps impractical to suspend a Gear 360 camera above the court to capture Curry's infamous jump shots from every angle.
Still, dabbling in 360-degree video is an important step for Twitter, especially given the popularity of its Periscope live video streaming tool. There are multiple consumer 360-degree video cameras for sale or coming to the market, a compelling reason for Twitter to figure out 360-degree live streaming.
Bots are getting in on the NBA Finals, too. Facebook released a bot for Messenger that can quickly offer you highlight reels if you missed or want to relive the action of last night's game. It's currently limited to just the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Warriors, but the breadth of its content is impressive. Ask it to show you highlights from a single player on either team, and choose between reels from the last game, the playoffs, or the entire season.
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Posted by PCMag on Friday, June 3, 2016