Facebook now lets you take 360 photos in-app, use them as Cover Photos

Facebook has been a big supporter of 360-degree photos and video, adding support for the immersive media formats early on Facebook itself. Now, the social tech company is adding support for capturing 360-degree photos right within the Facebook app itself.

The 360 photo capability is rolling out across both iOS and Android starting today, and includes the ability to zoom and tag friends. It’s also now possible to use 360-degree images (from any source) as Cover Photos. This is the first ever update to format support Facebook has made for Cover Photos since its introduction.

360 photos otherwise behave as regular pictures on Facebook, meaning you can post them to your Timeline, share them in albums alongside other standard images, and add them to groups. Capturing using the Facebook camera is designed to be as easy as possible, too, with Facebook employing computer vision to automatically stitch the photo after you rotate your phone to capture it panorama-style.

Here’s how to take 360 images in Facebook according to Facebook itself, an expert on the subject, should you want to give it a shot:

• Open the Facebook app and click the ‘360 Photo’ option from the top of your News Feed where you update your status

• Press the blue button and follow the path from start to finish until you’ve taken a complete panorama

• Select your preferred ‘starting view’ within the photo and share