You can now watch movies on Netflix and HBO in virtual reality after the two movie production and online streaming giants entered the VR world on different platforms. Netflix has just launched a VR app for Google's Daydream View VR headset, months after making the app available for the Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus.
Meanwhile HBO's VR apps - HBO GO VR and HBO NOW VR - are available exclusively on the Daydream, giving subscribers access to all episodes and seasons of series like "Westworld," "Game of Thrones, "Veep," and "Sex and the City," among others. It's the first time for HBO to have a presence in VR, BGR reports.
The Netflix and HBO VR apps can be downloaded from Google Play and the Oculus Store on Android-powered devices. Using either of the apps, viewers will experience being a virtual theater where they can browse through and select movies from a library. While the library is in VR, however, the movies themselves are not.
The Netflix VR app for Google Daydream View looks very similar to its Samsung Gear VR app, according to Fortune. Viewers will be in virtual living a room with appliances like a sofa and digital TV that shows a selection of movies available on Netflix.
So far Netflix VR works only with Google's own VR headset, but Fortune notes that it should be available for others as well once hardware creators build headsets using Daydream View's model and blueprints. The app does not yet support offline viewing, but Engadget says it would hopefully be added for the benefit of people on long flights, for example.
Before Netflix's launched an app for Google's Daydream View, HBO's VR apps were already on the platform with an interface similar to that of HBO's web site.
Netflix's and HBO's VR apps can be used through smartphones. You would need a phone that supports Google Daydream View, such as the Pixel, Moto Z, and Moto Z Force. More phones that support Daydream will be available in 2017, TechCrunch reports.
