A Snap is a combination of the main 360º, or flat image, along with any Hotspots and associated audio and image files you attach to it. We think of it like a “Snapshot” of an experience/content/scene.

A Group is simply a way for you to “Group” your Snaps. People use Groups for organizing Snaps by virtual tour, real estate property, client, time of year, company division, classroom, course, and some don’t use Groups at all!

Maps are optional flat images which allow you to link to other Snaps via Hotspots you place. Maps can be any type of image: an actual map, a floor plan, a directory listing, or anything else to help your users navigate around. Maps are uploaded to Groups, and are available to be shown in any Snap in that Group.

You’ve started at a great time, there are many options available these days:

• You can get something like a Ricoh Theta V, Insta360 One X one-shot camera that does it all for you.
• If you’re after poor quality on the cheap, you can use apps like Google Camera on Android, or Google Streetview on your iPhone or Android. Instructions for using Street View on both platforms can be found here.
• Dive in the professional deep end with a DSLR rig.

If you want to try SeekBeak with some sample images, try search the web for “Equirectangular” and you’ll find lots of panoramas and 360° images that other people have created.

We support 360º images in a 2:1 equirectangular format, as well as flat images, in JPEG and PNG formats. SeekBeak will also read the EXIF data and try and compensate for cropped panoramas that may be missing the top/bottom areas.

The name comes from the initial development of the app. We were testing it on Google Cardboard, and found that the focus point of the image we were looking at was wherever we were pointing our nose. When hunting for hotspots we were literally “seeking with our beaks”.

SeekBeak wants all of our customers to get the best value and quality from our unlimited plans, and have a lenient Fair Usage Policy to prevent fraud and abuse of our Services. If we feel that an account is using our platform in an abusive and/or fraudulent manner, the account owner will be contacted and action will be taken on a case by case basis.

For 360º images, we’ve found that resolutions around 10000px x 5000px give a nice balance between file size and quality across most devices. Flat images have a maximum size of 4096px x 4096px as they are all sized to fit the viewers screen size, unlike the 360º equirectangular.

Most likely the page you’ve embedded your Snap in is HTTP. SeekBeak uses secure HTTPS only, as there are some features which browsers will soon be allowing only over HTTPS connections, including device motion and fullscreen. The list of ‘powerful features’ features SeekBeak uses, as they’re called by the Google Chrome security team are:

• Device motion / orientation (Read motion data from phones etc.)
• Fullscreen
• getUserMedia (Allow SeekBeaks built in MP3 recorder to work)

If it’s still not working with HTTPS, make sure you’re using the preferred SeekBeak script embed code, instead of the iFrame embed code. Certain browsers and operating systems don’t allow device motion events across domains. Our script embed has a workaround for this.

iOS 12 implemented an “Opt in” way of allowing access to the phone gyro. We posted a quick video on how to fix this: https://seekbeak.com/2019/06/12/apple-disables-ios-safari-gyro-functionality-needed-for-vr-webxr-navigation/

iOS 13 completely changed the way that the user can allow browser access to the gyro. SeekBeak handles this natively when using our viewer, and also when using the script embed in other websites, raw iFrame embeds cannot access the gyro.

iOS doesn’t support full screen viewing at all. iPadOS has limited support, and you can keep up with changes here.

SeekBeak works best with equirectangular images at a 2:1 ratio.For example: if your image is 5000 pixels wide, it will ideally be 2500 pixels high. If your image has been cropped, or is from a camera which doesn’t export a 2:1 aspect ratio, SeekBeak will attempt to use any embedded EXIF data to correct the aspect ratio after you upload.

We’re very heavy on security here, which means that all your SeekBeak content is delivered over HTTPS. If your embed code is just using insecure HTTP, it won’t display. Change the HTTP to HTTPS inside the Embed code and it should display fine. If it still doesn’t work, feel free to contact us with the Embed link in question and we’ll give it a look.

This is unfortunately out of our hands, and is by design to combat autoplaying ads on websites, and save mobile data.

From Apple: “In Safari on iOS (for all devices, including iPad), where the user may be on a cellular network and be charged per data unit, preload and autoplay are disabled. No data is loaded until the user initiates it.”.

Google has followed suit as well: “Android has disabled autoplay in versions 4.1+.”

You must be using a recent desktop version of Google Chrome or Firefox to enable the SeekBeak audio encoder.

When you click the   button in the file manager, your browser should pop up a window asking if you want SeekBeak to have access to your microphone. If you accidentally clicked “No”, or closed the popup, you can access the popup again by clicking the microphone / camera icon in the browsers address bar.

Getting peoples GPS coordinates via the browser can involve jumping through a lot of hoops, let’s see if these
can help you out:

• iOS Safari
  • If you’re on iOS using Safari, please go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Safari
    and make sure it is set to ON.
• MacOS Browsers
  • If you’re using a browser on MacOS, go into System Preferences > Security & Privacy >
    Privacy, check “Enable Location Services,” and specify your browser as one of the apps that’s allowed
    access.
• Android (Chrome)
  • Turn on Location Services: Settings: > Location > “Turn On”
    • or Chrome > Settings > Site Setting > Location > select “Location access is turned
      off for this device” > select “On”
  • Allow us to Collect Location Data: Chrome > Settings > Site Setting >
    Location > select “On”
  • Unblock Instructions If Blocked Accidentally: Chrome > Settings > Site Setting
    > Location > Blocked > select website > Location Access > “Allow”
• Android (Firefox)
  • Turn on Location Services: Settings > Location > select “On”
  • Allow us to Collect Location Data: Firefox > Page > Edit Site Settings > select
    “On”

Some browser translation software can cause issues with SeekBeak, and cause the platform to not function correctly. Please try disabling your translation software to see if it’s causing the errors.

This error can occur on certain hardware/software combinations if you try and copy a file from a remote network drive, shared folder, a linked Dropbox folder etc. It may also occur if you’re behind an overzealous firewall or VPN.

Please copy the files to your local drive first, disable the firewall/VPN, and then upload.

SVG’s have a ton of things that can go wrong with them internally. Some browsers handle errors better than others. Try resaving the SVG in a different image editor, or use an online SVG optimizer. If the export is a ‘wrapped’ jpg/png file, try opening the SVG up in a plain text editor, search for, and change

xlink:href="data:img/

to

xlink:href="data:image/

and then re-upload it. Note the “img” vs “image”.

We use Googles PDF viewer in order to display PDFs inline, instead of launching an external viewer.

If Google cannot fetch the file fast enough from the place where you are hosting the PDF, it may sometimes result in a blank page. Moving the PDF file location to a faster file host, like Google Drive, usually solves the issue.

SeekBeak is compatible with most mobile and desktop based VR headsets, i.e. Google Cardboard, Quest, Vive. For mobile based headsets, simply put the device into the headset and press the VR/XR headset icon in the SeekBeak Navbar. With mobile based headsets, you get full gaze based navigation, and all Hotspot interactivity where applicable.

Headsets using built in browsers like the Oculus Go/Quest/Quest 2 and Vive Focus Plus are supported and have full functionality in normal browsing mode.  Their WebXR “Immersive mode” isn’t able to display any HTML content however, only 3D graphics, so functionality is currently limited to basic Navigation via Point or Polygon “Jump To Snap” type Hotspots.

Unfortunately, Safari on iOS versions before 13 does not support Pointer Events, which is the method browsers use to ‘tell’ the software where a users finger is. Support for these events is critical for proper functionality of the platform.

Apple has decided that iPhones should not have a full screen API unfortunately, (except for new iPads on iOS 13+, and even then there’s an overlay button), and are unable to enter full screen mode from an iFrame.

Just to clarify: This is not just a SeekBeak issue, this is an ‘everyone on the internet’ issue unfortunately due to Apples decision. This also only applies to Snaps embedded in 3rd party websites, our viewer has no issue with displaying full screen on iPhone.

Some options available are to have a ‘view full screen’ link somewhere which will load our dedicated viewer in a separate page, or to use CSS/JavaScript to adjust the size of the embed in their website for iPhone users.

For devices that do support full screen, SeekBeak will detect if the device supports the full screen API and will show/hide the full screen button accordingly.

For up to date support on which devices/browsers support full screen from an iFrame, see https://caniuse.com