Not often do we see a cool and fun app arrive on Android before iOS, but such is the case with Google’s Spotlight Stories. Originally developed by Motorola Mobility’s Advanced Technology And Products (ATAP) moonshot division before their acquisition by Google, the app appeared only on Moto X phones. Google continued to support the project and this summer began rolling the app out to certain devices through the Play Store.
Spotlight Stories is an entertainment app that allows viewers to look around inside the animated content by moving their body and the phone to see different parts or angles of the story taking place. It offers stories built using 3D and 2D animations, 360-degree spherical cinema-quality video, sound sphere audio and sensor fusion techniques.
The app takes advantage of the device sensors such as the gyroscope and accelerometer, and offers an immersive viewing experience. Unfortunately at this point the app does not allow users to create their own movies yet.
The included content, which is a separate download from the app, includes “Windy Days,” created by former Pixar moviemakers and was the original content on the Moto X phones, “Duet” from Glen Keane, “Buggy Night” from ATAP, and “Help” by Justin Lin, director of “The Fast and the Furious.”
The movies are free to download, and you’ll need wifi, as the smallest is 116mb. “Help” is noted to be “Free for a limited time,” so you may want to download that one soon. The app is available for all iOS devices running 8.xx or higher. It appears to be working fine on my iPad Air 2, which is running the iOS 9 Public Beta 2. Bear in mind that if you want to download to an iPad, you’ll need to search under “iPhone Apps Only,” as it does not show up under iPad apps.
It’s a fun little app, and kind of cool to see where technology is heading. I tried it on my Note earlier this year and my kids thought it was pretty cool. Heck, I thought it was pretty cool.
Have you tried it, either on iOS or Android? Let us know what you think, either in our comments section or using the social media link of your choice below!
[button link=”http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/23/google-brings-its-360-degree-movies-app-spotlight-stories-to-ios/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Via: TechCrunch[/button][button link=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-spotlight-stories/id974739483?mt=8″ icon=”fa-apple” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Get Spotlight Stories from Apple App Store[/button][button link=”https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.spotlightstories” icon=”fa-android” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Get Spotlight Stories from Google Play[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
