Your favourite porn website now offers VR porn, this is how it feels

PornHub's entry is to VR porn, what the Apple Watch is to smartwatches. Potentially.

India is the third largest contributor to traffic on PornHub and your favourite porn website is now running a free channel on Virtual Reality Porn. Incidentally, companies like Samsung and Lenovo have been marketing their Gear VR and AntVR headsets very aggressively for a while now. Many OnePlus fans already have the Google Cardboard (you may know it as the OnePlus Cardboard), and Amazon is selling Google Cardboard variants at as low as Rs. 300. So, once you have amassed the right tools, read further.

There’s a general rule about porn, known as Rule 34. It says, “If it exists, there’s porn about it -- no exceptions.” The pornography industry works really hard to maintain this rule as well, which in turn makes it one of the most innovative industries you can find. As times change, so does pornography, and it just gets ‘better’ every day. Recently, the industry has made appearances in worldwide tech events, showcasing the capabilities of Virtual Reality Porn, and one of the biggest names in the porn industry, PornHub, has entered the market, announcing a free VR channel for users of its website.

It’s not new of course. In fact, PornHub’s partner, BadoinkVR, was one of the first to enter the VR Porn space. “At Pornhub it is our duty to provide our global audience with the latest in cutting edge technology. Virtual reality is the next phase in the constantly metamorphosing world of adult entertainment, and will provide users with a mesmeric experience unlike anything they’ve seen before. Now, our users are not only able to view our content, but be protagonists in the experience and interact with their favorite porn stars,” said Corey Price, Vice President, Pornhub.

The company also encourages its users to “request a free pair of virtual reality goggles and visit PornHub’s virtual reality section”, although that giveaway is now over. You can click on this not-for-family link or (if you would rather be on incognito mode) navigate to PornHub’s VR Homepage, for more. The company even has an app for the same.

PornHub’s VR content is made for the Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift and more, so we expect it’ll work with that AntVR headset you got with Lenovo’s newest phone as well. That should be an important tidbit for India, which is the third biggest contributor to PornHub’s traffic, according to the company’s year-in-review, from January.

Now that we’re through with the news part, let me take you through a text-based, but immersive journey on what virtual reality porn actually feels like.

You see, like most other virtual reality content, VR Porn is also immersive, but there’s a problem here. While other videos in VR do pixelate, you wouldn’t want the same with porn. It’s as immersive, but I never really cared for the pixels that I could see in other content, as I did here. That said, BadoinkVR and others have gone the distance to ensure that the quality of content is as good as possible, but the limitations of the headsets and the fact that I wear glasses do come into play. The Samsung Gear VR's focus toggle does help a little bit, but it's not perfect yet.

The most interesting part about VR porn is in the myriad reactions it draws. I tried to get as many reactions from friends as I could. While one complained that their head ached from the 360 effect, another was simply too amused to say anything. There was yet another who was just told of the experience and became interested, even before watching it.

That pretty much sums up the concept of VR Porn for you. It’s innovative, immersive and interesting. One of the biggest and established industries in the world is making use of the budding industry that is VR, and it’s interesting to say the least. Watching in 360 just offers that extra bit which you couldn't get before, and the VR industry is trying its best to ensure that you never have to go out of your home again. It's everything you imagine it to be and with time, it can only get better.

Everybody here at Digit has watched VR porn (you know, for work purposes) and everyone had a reaction. But these are just the initial days of VR Porn. If we’ve learned anything about porn over the years, it’s that it...umm...matures, fast. Pretty soon you may be looking at 360 degree pornographic content based on different genres, from animated to the most real.