
Initially, the Wolvic browser will run on Oculus, HTC Vive Focus, Pico Interactive, Daydream, Huawei VR Glasses and open source Lynx devices. Reimagining a browser for an immersive OS is new ground, and that newness means browser choice is currently limited,” it says. Additionally, WebXR opens new avenues to navigate, share, and experience information driven from within the browser itself. “Entering a ‘reality’ without access to everything that already exists on the Web would be pretty terrible. XR systems which provide an immersive OS need web browsers to be part of that,” the announcement on the Igalia website states. “We at Igalia believe the Web is important to the XR space in a large number of ways. But its own announcement hints that the company felt Mozilla’s efforts on this front had stalled, noting how it’s excited to take up the experiment and “continue this work as a complete project.” Igalia touts its commitment to the XR space - XR being the umbrella term that covers both virtual reality and augmented reality and similar technologies. This browser will be available for download starting next week, so users won’t have to go without - they’ll just have to make the switch.

Mozilla is instead directing users who still want to utilize a web browser in VR to Igalia’s upcoming open source browser, Wolvic, which is based on Firefox Reality’s source code. But in an announcement published today, Mozilla says the browser will be removed from the stores where it’s been available for download in the “coming weeks.” While capable of surfing the 2D web, the expectation was that users would largely use the new technology to browse and interact with the web’s 3D content, like 360-degree panoramic images and videos, 3D models and WebVR games, for example. The technology had allowed users to access the web from within their VR headset, doing things like visiting URLs, performing searches and browsing both the 2D and 3D internet using your VR hand controllers, instead of a mouse.įirefox Reality first launched in fall 2018 and has been available on Viveport, Oculus, Pico and HoloLens platforms through their various app stores.

Today, Mozilla announced it’s shutting down its Firefox Reality browser - the four-year-old browser built for use in virtual reality environments.
