Mozilla unveiled a new version of its popular Firefox web browser today, but instead of being on your computer or mobile phone it’s designed to be used with a virtual reality headset.
“The future of mixed reality is about delivering experiences, not about building applications. There shouldn’t be friction moving from one experience to another,” Sean White, Senior Vice President, Emerging Technologies said in a blog post announcing the browser. “Firefox was the first browser to implement WebVR – an open standard for sharing and enjoying virtual reality content through a web URL. This lays the groundwork for creating and delivering immersive experiences using a method that is as simple as opening a web page.”
Called Firefox Reality, the browser was created from the ground up to be used with stand-alone virtual reality and augmented reality headsets. It was built using Firefox’s existing web technology combined with Servo, its experimental web engine.
For now, it’s not available to the public, but Mozilla released a preview video of it in action:
Just like Firefox’s desktop browser, Firefox Reality is open source. During its initial development period, the source code for the browser will run in development mode on the Daydream and GearVR devices.