Spotlight Feature: How to Use Custom Tags in 360° Projects

Louise Jones September 27, 2017

Since we released ThingLink’s interactive 360° scenes back in 2016, we have constantly been updating and expanding the potential for creator customization, helping anyone to easily create professional-looking immersive learning and training content.

We are regularly expanding the range and variety of versatile tag types that you can use from our stock tag library in the editor. However one standout feature that can make an immediate visual impact on your ThingLink 360 scene is the ability to customize your tags. In this short blog post, we give a quick overview of how to do it, and the different ways you can use the feature for a wide variety of content types and audiences.

What are the 6 tag types in ThingLink?

With the arrival of the Question Tag in late 2024, ThingLink now provides 6 different tag types that you can use and combine in your interactive content.

These are:

Text and Media Tag: For combining text, images, videos, links, and background audio.

Text Label Tag: This tag displays up to 100 symbols when hovered over. Use for annotating or adding short texts at a glance.

Embed Tag: Use this tag to easily add third-party or ThingLink embed codes for interactive experiences within your scene.

Transit Tag: Allows your viewers to move from the current scene to another ThingLink scene.

Question Tag: Ask your viewers a question with multiple answer options, where only one option is correct

Poll Tag: Lets you add single-choice questions for anonymous feedback or viewers’ opinions.

Bear in mind that you can use any type of tag icon with any type of tag. For detailed information and tips on how to use each of these 6 different tag types please see this full support article.

Create custom tags to reflect your brand identity

In this example below, a luxury brand “Velvetique” have created branded tags that contain an easily identifiable part of their brand logo – a black V on a pink background. It creates a sleek and joined-up way of adding their brand identity to 360 content.

Guide your audience through your content with themed numbered tags.

In this example below, a literature-themed escape room based around Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the creator has chosen to create and upload custom number tags which look like Christmas decorations. You can create tags which align with your theme, whether creating learning content in the K-12 sector, immersive training courses for employees or interactive marketing materials.

Help your learners by categorizing your content

In this example below you can see a number of themed tags created by Historic Environment Scotland to help learners explore Edinburgh Castle. They have provided a guide or legend in the information tag. Read the full case study here! Although not a 360 scene, this is strong example of custom-made tags that quickly and easily denote the content.

How to create your own custom tag icons

Creating and uploading your own custom tags is very straightforward. You just need to ensure that your icon is saved as a Scalable Vector Graphic (svg.) This is easy to do using Canva for example. For the full picture, take a look at our helpful blog post here, or our support article here.

Use and adapt one of the standard ThingLink tag icons if you prefer

Don’t have time to create your own tags? Why not use some of the wide variety of tags available in the standard editor selection. There are now over 2000 icon and colour variations, but they are grouped together in sets to help you search. You can also easily change the colour combinations in an almost infinite variety – to help make your tags easier (or harder!) to see or to match your own branding, the look and feel you want to achieve or the background scene.

In the example below, the creator has used tag icons which reflect the content of each tag and also match the context in which they are placed. They have changed the colors of the standard tags to a purple background and white detail to create consistency.

To learn how to change the colors of your standard tags with our color picker feature, see our dedicated article here.

Transparent tags

Another tag option is to use on of the three transparent/translucent tags which were added in 2024. You’ll find these at the bottom of the main array of tag icons.

Tag placement

Where you place your tags is especially important in 360 scenes. It can sometimes be easy for your audience to miss tags, which is why the tag locator in the top right hand corner comes in handy!

For further detailed guidance on how to place tags on a 360 scene, see this helpful support article.

Where to source 360 images for your immersive ThingLink scenes

If you require a base image for your 360 scene, there are many straightforward ways to find or create the perfect image.

• Why not take a look at our ever-expanding and free-to-use 360 library?

• Or convert any panoramic image into an immersive photosphere with the game-changing ThingLink Pano to 360? Read how it works here.

• Or use our super-simple built-in AI 360 image generator tool to create realistic scenes to suit any type of content. Did you spot that the Velvetique store, the Dickensian street scene and the Nordic cabin were all created with this tool? Read more at this article here and start creating with ThingLink AI!
  New to AI image generation? You can learn how to create effective text prompts in our comprehensive guide to powerful prompting for 360 images here.