#One Direction to launch ‘immersive’ website as 10th-anniversary treat

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Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Liam Payne attend 102.7 KIIS FM.
Christopher Polk

It’s no One Direction reunion, but 10 years after forming, the band is getting back together — virtually, that is.

The currently defunct boy band supergroup is preparing a new 1D anniversary website full of “immersive” offerings, interactive playlists and “activations across digital platforms,” according to a press release.

The site, set to launch Thursday, will be formatted as a timeline of the group’s history, from their first audition to the beginning of their hiatus. It will also serve as a one-stop-shop archive for One Direction’s music videos, TV performances and behind-the-scenes content.

A playlist feature will let fans generate personalized digital mixtapes, tailored to their favorite One Direction era, which can be saved to the user’s preferred streaming service.

In addition to the website, the band is also preparing to simultaneously release a celebration video documenting their highlights together, from their formation on “The X Factor” to the release of their 2015 hit single “History.” What’s more, a trove of reformatted One Direction EPs, B-sides, live recordings, acoustic versions and “rare songs” will become available across streaming platforms.

The British band has long been teasing this month’s anniversary celebrations. In April, devoted followers noticed that on Twitter, members Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan all re-followed Zayn Malik — who left the group’s world tour and quit the band over “stress” in March 2015. Soon after the re-following, Page Six revealed that the group was secretly working on a 10th-anniversary plan. At the time, ideas were said to range from reuniting for a TV special to releasing a new single, although a tour was never in the cards.

Payne caused a stir after prematurely confirming the reunion in an interview with the Sun.

Since disbanding (supposedly not permanently), the group’s members have continued to make headlines, and all have solo projects at different recording labels. Most notably, Styles, 26, has jettisoned his boy-band fame into gender-nonconforming glam rock icon-hood with hits from “Sign of the Times” to “Watermelon Sugar.”