Owning a site on WordPress makes you constantly search for all kinds of plugins that might further improve your site in some way. And when doing so it is important to add at least one thing that gives your visitors the ability to interact with your site.
These kinds of things will boost your user engagement and might even make the users want to revisit the site just because of that one feature.
The plugin that we will be discussing in this article is that sort of plugin, and you might have even used it on some other site. The plugin in question is Algori 360 Video.
What is Algori 360 Video
Algori 360 Video is basically a Gutenberg block plugin that allows you to add an interactive 360 video to your website and is a tool that is very common on other sites.
It is sort of like when you go on Google Street View but the difference here is that this video is something you can interact with.
It is actually quite nice, responsive, and very quick to set up and use.
What are the main features of this plugin
- There is no need to have Flash on your site
- It is compatible with all the modern browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Microsoft Edge
- It has support for VR (virtual reality) headsets such as the Oculus Rift, Daydream, GearVR and Cardboard
- It has full support for MP4 files
- It also has support for both touch and mouse (so that even mobile users can experience the features of this plugin)
- It has a Play/Pause button that allows you to play and pause the video (who would have thought, right).
- Only one 360° video can be loaded on a single page.
How to install the plugin
You install this plugin as you would any other plugin on WordPress. Just simply go ahead and download the zip file of the plugin, then unzip it and add it to your “wp-content/plugins” directory in your WordPress installation.
Once you have done all that, you can then go into your admin panel and under Plugins, you will find the Algori 360 Video plugin. Lastly, click the “Activate” button so that you may start using the plugin. And that is all that there is to it.
You could also install it through the Plugins tab directly, and then activate the same way. Honestly, the choice is yours.
How to use the plugin
First, I would like to note that this plugin requires you to have the Gutenberg editor activated on your WordPress site in order to access and use it.
So, after you have successfully installed the plugin and after you have activated the Gutenberg editor, you can finally decide on which page you want the 360 video to be situated at.
When you have finally decided where you want it to be placed, just simply add the 360 Video block using the Gutenberg editor (it is a simple drag and drop process).
Once you have added the block, you are ready to use it. Just pick the video that you want in the block and that’s about it (all you need now is a 360 video).
When the block is placed, you can also use the “Play/Pause” button and you can additionally adjust the video’s dimensions (height and width) by simply using the Gutenberg block inspector section.
Costs, caveats, etc.
As you can see, it’s very easy to set it all up and add the plugin block to your pages. The only issue with this plugin (that is if you consider this as a drawback) is that you can only add one 360 video per page.
I believe it is more than enough to have only one video per page. But then again, if you want multiple videos then you should be aware that you might run the risk of them making your site run slower.
Either way, Algori 360 Video is a good plugin and it does what it claims to do. The only problem now is that you need to create a video that has a 360 view angle. But that is a topic for another time.