Immersive Learning in Your Hands: Introducing Motion View for ThingLink

ThingLink Team August 17, 2026

Virtual reality headsets are an incredibly powerful way for learners to explore immersive learning experiences. By placing learners inside an environment and allowing them to look around, explore and interact naturally, VR can create a strong sense of presence that is difficult to replicate in other formats.

But immersive learning should not depend on access to a headset.

One of ThingLink’s strengths has always been the ability to create immersive experiences that can be explored across a wide range of devices. The same experience can be viewed using a VR headset, laptop, desktop computer, tablet, mobile phone or immersive space, helping organisations and educators make immersive learning available to more people.

And now, exploring immersive ThingLink content on mobile devices has become even easier.

Making Mobile Immersion More Intuitive

Using ThingLink’s WebVR Mode, learners could move their device around to explore the environment, but interacting with hotspots required positioning a small white dot over the content they wanted to open. It worked, but we knew the interaction could feel more natural.

Our development team has taken that feedback and created Motion View, making it much easier and more intuitive to explore immersive experiences on tablets and mobile devices.

Introducing Motion View

Mobile View uses the gyroscope already built into most mobile devices to place the learner within the immersive environment. As they move their device, their view moves with them, creating the feeling of holding a window into the virtual space.

The biggest difference is how learners interact with the content.

Instead of positioning a pointer over a hotspot, learners can now simply tap the hotspot with their finger.

This small change makes exploring an immersive environment feel much more familiar. Learners can look around naturally, identify something they want to investigate and tap it to open a tag, watch a video, listen to audio, answer a question or move into another part of the experience.

The technology becomes less noticeable, allowing learners to concentrate on the experience itself.

More Possibilities for Learning

Making mobile immersion easier opens up even more possibilities for how ThingLink experiences can be used.

Student-Created Virtual Field Trips

Students can create their own virtual field trips using 360° environments, adding information, images, audio, video and questions along the way.

Their classmates can then explore those experiences using an iPad or mobile device, physically moving around the virtual space and tapping the elements they want to investigate.

Immersive Escape Rooms

Immersive escape rooms become even easier to explore. Learners can move around an environment searching for clues, opening hotspots, answering questions and solving challenges as they progress through an activity.

The more natural interaction makes it easier to focus on the challenge rather than how to navigate the technology.

Employee Orientation and Training

Motion View also creates exciting opportunities for workplace learning. Many employees already use smartphones or tablets as part of their working day. ThingLink experiences can be used to introduce new employees to a workplace, help people familiarise themselves with unfamiliar environments, provide safety or orientation information, or create interactive training activities.

Learners can explore these experiences using devices they already know how to use.

VR Headsets or Mobile Devices? Why Not Both?

VR headsets can offer an exceptional level of immersion. For some learning experiences, being completely surrounded by an environment can provide a powerful sense of presence and engagement.

But headsets are only one way to experience immersive learning.

A school may have a small number of VR headsets but hundreds of students. An organisation may have employees working across different locations and using different devices. Some learners may simply prefer not to use a headset.

That is why device flexibility is so important.

With ThingLink, creators can build immersive experiences and give learners different ways to access them, depending on the technology available and the needs of the individual.

Small Change, Big Difference

Motion View is a relatively simple update, but it can make a significant difference to the learner experience.

By combining the gyroscope already built into mobile devices with familiar touchscreen interaction, exploring immersive content becomes simpler, smoother and more intuitive.

It is another step towards making immersive learning easier to access, whether learners are using a VR headset, a computer, an iPad or the phone already in their hand.

Because immersive learning should not be defined by the device.

We believe it should be about creating meaningful experiences and giving every learner the opportunity to explore them.

Support article with all the details here.