Google Spotlight Stories App Launched for iOS

Google's Spotlight Stories app, which was limited to Android devices, has now reached the rival iOS platform. The app was first seen with Motorola devices, after which it started rolling out widely in May this year.

The Google Spotlight Stories app for brings all four short animated films that are present with the Android version of the app - Help, Duet, Buggy Night, and Windy Day. The short films are immersive story-telling 360-degree films created for entertainment purpose. It offers stories created using 2D and 3D technology, 360-degree spherical "cinema-quality" video, sound sphere audio, and "sensor fusion techniques," as per the search giant. The app is somewhat similar to YouTube 360 videos, the support for which was rolled out recently.

The app operates on the smartphone's gyroscope and accelerometer for the experience. The users can however, only browse from the four short films and cannot create their own films for now. The Google Spotlight Stories app weighs 16.5MB and is compatible with iOS 8.0 and later OS versions, and is available to download from the App Store.

Google recently introduced a new feature for users called 'Your Timeline'. The feature is heavily based on the Google Maps service and is created to let users visualise 'real-world routines', trips of places and glimpses of locations where users have visited.

It is visible in the Google Maps app and Web interface, and essentially provides a more user-friendly view of the user's location history with the ability to edit and delete. Your Timeline, besides giving a scrollable view of the location users have been to, what they did there, for how much time, and how did they commute, also shows up images users might have captured if they are using Google Photos.