Essential Phone's 360-degree camera can now live stream to Facebook

The 360-camera add-on that’s now available for the Essential Phone just got a bit more useful. The company has issued a software update that will allow the camera to stream live 360-degree videos to Facebook.

If you own the phone and the add-on, you can snap on the 360-degree camera to the back of the Essential Phone and launch its companion app. You should now see a 360 Live option. Tap on it, then tap on the red “Live” camera icon. You will then be asked to log into your Facebook account, and also asked to allow permissions for the camera add-on. Then you select which folks can see your Facebook Live video, and if you want you can write up a description for the video as well. Finally, just tap on the red “Live” camera icon again and presto; you are live streaming in full 360-degree video on Facebook.

In a blog post, Essential says that it will soon add support for live streaming 360-degree videos on Twitter, via Periscope. You can post 360-degree videos already on YouTube, but there no word on live streaming for that platform yet. This update comes even as the Essential Phone has seen a big price drop just a couple of months after it launched. Both Best Buy and Amazon are currently selling the phone by itself for $449.99, or you can pay just $50 more for the 360-degree camera.

Does adding Facebook Live support for the Essential Phone’s 360-degree camera make it more appealing to you?