Mozilla Firefox Reality Is a Web Browser Made Specifically for VR/AR

Image: Firefox

A few months back, Mozilla, the non-profit company behind the Firefox Web Browser, announced WebVR support that would let users stream their favorite VR Porn videos without the need to download them. Taking the experience even further, the company has now announced the ‘Firefox Reality’ web browser.

Firefox Reality for Standalone VR and AR

Firefox Reality is a completely open-sourced and cross-platform browser which the company says is built from scratch specifically for standalone VR and AR headsets. In its official blog post, the company says that the browser has been designed to assist the internet’s transition to VR by providing support for a wide number of devices and platforms.

Although there are other browsers in the market that support browsing virtual reality content, most of them are hardware specific. For example, Samsung has its own browser for Gear VR and Google’s Chrome VR is supported only on the Daydream VR Headsets.

A preview of Firefox Reality running on the Vive Focus is available below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=p05SKePDAcs

Although several VR headset manufacturers have developed web VR browsers for their own platform, Mozilla seems to be taking a different approach. The upcoming Firefox Reality is a solution which is not only hardware agnostic but also provides a solid foundation for integrating larger VR/AR projects like WebVR and WebAR.

As we can see in the video above, the new Firefox browser gives full access to native controllers. All the Standard web pages and videos appear as virtual windows where the user can seamlessly move from one VR experience to the other.

While commenting on this new development, Mozilla Chief R&D Officer, Sean White, said: “Here at Mozilla, it’s our mission to ensure that the Internet is an open and accessible resource that puts people first. Currently, the world can browse the open web using our fast and privacy-focused Firefox browser, but continuing that mission in a rapidly changing world means constantly investing our time and resources into new and emerging technologies – and realities.”

He further stated: “We believe that the future of the web will be heavily intertwined with virtual and augmented reality, and that future will live through browsers. The future of mixed reality is about delivering experiences, not about building applications. There shouldn’t be friction moving from one experience to another.”