A little over five months since first revealing its nascent VR browser project, Mozilla is officially unleashing Firefox Reality on the world. While the standard Firefox browser already features support for WebVR, Firefox Reality is built from the ground up to bring "the immersive web" to VR headsets.
Since its initial preview earlier this year, Firefox Reality looks to have undergone quite a few changes to better accommodate its virtual environment. Whereas early versions simply looked as if a Firefox window was slapped against a stark, virtual background, version 1.0 places the browser against an immersive range of colorful backdrops with large, rounded buttons for navigation.
Upon opening the browser, Firefox Reality is immediately populated with a list of immersive experiences that you can dive into right away. Mozilla says it is working with content creators to bolster this lineup with games, videos, and new environments that will be added to the home screen over time.
Of course, you can browse the web as you normally would on your PC or mobile device as well. But because text input using a remote can be a hassle, Firefox Reality includes the option to perform searches using your voice.
"We had to rethink everything, including navigation, text-input, environments, search and more," says Andre Vrignaud, head of Mixed Reality Platform Strategy at Mozilla. "This required years of research, and countless conversations with users, content creators, and hardware partners. The result is a browser that is built for the medium it serves. It makes a big difference, and we think you will love all of the features and details that we've created specifically for a MR browser."
At launch, Firefox VR is available on Oculus, Viveport, and Daydream headsets. And at the start, Firefox Reality is missing some standard features you'd expect to be present in any browser. Namely, there's currently no way to bookmark a page, nor is there support for accounts or 360-degree videos. However, Mozilla says that all of these features, and more, are slated to be added "in the coming months."
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