360° video apps for NYT & Discovery

360° video · 2016 — 2018 · Unity & VR Developer · Secret Location

The apps behind the first wave of 360° journalism — NYT VR, Discovery VR, and more — on iOS, Android, and Google Daydream.

When The New York Times and Discovery Channel decided their audiences should watch stories in 360°, Secret Location built the apps. I worked on the early versions of these players — NYT VR among them — built in Unity3D and shipped on iOS, Android, Samsung Gear VR, and later Google Daydream, plus similar apps for other organizations that wanted their video libraries in 360°.

A 360° video app lives or dies on everything around the video: catalogues that load instantly, downloads that survive bad connections, playback that starts when you press play. That invisible layer was my lane.

NYT VR launches on Gear VR ↗ · Oculus blog, 2015 NYT VR adds Google Daydream support ↗ · NYT press

NYT VR's The Daily 360 menu in-headset: a row of story tiles floating over a 360° prairie at dusk, captioned 'Journalism by The New York Times. Technology by Samsung.' — The Daily 360 — a new 360° story every day

NYT VR's playback controls over an underwater 360° scene — play, skip, and a scrub bar for 'The Click Effect', a story about the language of dolphins and whales — The player — controls designed for headsets

NYT VR and The Daily 360 are products of The New York Times Company; Discovery VR is a product of Discovery. All product names, logos, and brands are shown solely to document my work on the project and remain the property of their respective owners.

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