If you’re unfamiliar with Google’s spotlight stories, you’d be forgiven as they have only even been compatible with certain Motorola phones prior to today. Perhaps in an attempt to make things more open after users have been clamoring fo access or just on a whim alongside their newly released Spotlight story today, Google and the ATAP division have decided to open up the compatibility list for Spotlight Stories to non-Motorola devices. What all devices this includes is uncertain as there is no master list, and I wasn’t personally able to use the app after installation on my Sony Xperia Z3 so chances are the list of supported devices could still be quite small. The good news is that it isn’t limited to just Motorola phones anymore.
The app description states a requirement of Android 4.2 or above, and that not all devices are yet supported but that the team is working diligently to open support for as many capable devices as possible, so if you can’t use Spotlight Stories yet it might not be too long before you can. Besides opening up device support, the Spotlight Stories team under ATAP has released their newest and fourth short film today which is free for a limited time alongside the other three Spotlight Stories which are currently available as well. It’s called HELP, and it was directed in partnership with Fast and Furious director Justin Lin.
The idea of Spotlight Stories is to give users a totally new and immersive experience to a viewing of unique short film collections, all of which at this point have been animated shorts. HELP is actually the first live action film that has been put out in the Spotlight Stories collection, and there are likely to be more in the future. You’ll find that HELP, just like the other stories, has to be downloaded onto your device to watch, and it comes in at 1GB in file size so make sure you have some room to store it. As the film plays you can move the phone screen around to see things from multiple viewing angles, which makes it interesting to watch a few times or more as you can see things from a different perspective. It’s all pretty cool and feels like you’re in control of the camera, not too unlike the 360-degree videos popping up on YouTube.