For the past few years Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, has been at the forefront of immersive reality on the web, becoming one of the first companies to experiment with WebVR. Today, it’s taking the next step with both VR and AR.
Firefox Reality is Mozilla’s brand new web browser designed specifically for use with standalone VR and AR headsets. It’s an open source, independent application designed to be accessible on a wide variety of headsets (no specific support yet, though the video in this post is running on HTC’s new Vive Focus). Currently, there are other browsers and apps that support browsing the web in VR, but they’re limited to specific headsets, like Google’s Chrome VR support on Daydream, or Samsung’s own browser for Gear VR.
The browser gives you full access to the web with native controller integration. Standard web pages and videos will appear as virtual windows, though Mozilla ultimately sees this as a platform for transitioning from one VR experience to another seamlessly. It’s early days for the browser, but the company sees it as laying the foundation for answering a wealth of questions on how VR and AR on the web should work in the years to come.
And, as for your personal information and preferences, Mozilla says it takes the matter very seriously. “Mixed reality is still new,” a blog post reads. “We don’t yet have all the answers for what privacy looks like in this new medium, but we are committed to finding the solution. We will continue to build on the proven permissions model of the web platform, which provides even more protection than native apps provide.”
