Facebook wants users to browse the web while wearing a headset

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox

Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Facebook has started adding new virtual reality (VR) experiences to the News Feed, which it wants users to interact with while wearing a VR headset.

The social network has made no secret of its VR ambitions, and is trying to get people to embrace the technology by giving it as much exposure as possible.

Facebook owns VR company Oculus, so the move to tie virtual reality with the main Facebook site should also help the companies shift VR headsets.

“Although we’re still in the experimentation phase, we’re inspired by the potential to let even more people experience quality VR content — wherever they may be,” said Oculus.

“It’s still early days, but we see WebVR as an important building block on the road to immersive computing.

"The promise to visit a website in your headset and immediately be in a VR experience — no apps required — is an exciting one.”

A 360-degree VR scavenger hunt game promoting Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is now available to try on Facebook.

Though you can try it with a regular screen and mouse, it's designed to work a lot more smoothly through a VR headset.

Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg said that VR can make the “limited” real world better.

“Whenever people say that we’re building virtual reality because we’re not satisfied with the one we live in, my answer is, ‘Of course we are,’” he said.

The comments came hours after he was heavily criticised for “teleporting” a cartoon avatar of himself to disaster-struck Puerto Rico, in order to promote Facebook Spaces, the company’s virtual reality platform.