Mobile AR News News
News: Apple's ARKit 2.0 Could Make These 10 Mobile AR Apps Even Better
With the announcement of ARKit 2.0 at WWDC 2018, Apple is bringing some powerful new capabilities to mobile augmented reality apps this fall.
News: Escape Room Experience Comes to Mobile via Futuristic 'The Lockdown' Augmented Reality Game
Escape rooms, those real world puzzle games that challenge teams to solve a mystery and gain their freedom from a locked room, are all the rage right now. But augmented reality games such as The Lockdown could make them obsolete.
News: The Ancients AR Puts Mystical Sea Battles in Your Living Room in Augmented Reality
While mobile gaming, in the 10 years since the App Store launched, has matured to console-level quality, premium augmented reality games built with ARKit (or ARCore) have been scarce.
News: NBA AR App Launches on Android & Adds Portals to Playoffs
The NBA Finals is underway, and now basketball fans with iPhones and Android devices can get closer to the action for free than they ever could with expensive courtside tickets.
News: Apple's ARKit 2.0 Intends to Match & Surpass Google's ARCore with Multiplayer & Persistent Content, Says Report
On the one year anniversary of the introduction of ARKit, Apple is planning to reveal major updates its augmented reality toolkit for mobile apps at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California next week.
News: ManoMotion Updates Its Hand Tracking SDK for Smartphones with Skeleton Tracking
If two hands are better than one, then two hand-tracking SDKs must be better than one as well. After uSens announced its Hand Tracking SDK at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara on Thursday, ManoMotion unveiled the latest version of its own SDK. Both technologies give apps the ability to track hand gestures with just a smartphone camera.
News: Hand Tracking for Augmented Reality Apps Comes to Smartphones via uSens
This time last year, computer vision company uSens introduced a stereo camera module capable of hand tracking. Now, uSens can achieve the same thing with just a smartphone's camera.
News: Snapchat Adds Sound Recognition to Its Augmented Reality Arsenal
As Facebook, Apple, Samsung, and others offer augmented reality selfie effects and content that challenge its platform, Snapchat has continued to innovate with its augmented reality capabilities.
News: Snow App Brings Animoji Alternative to Everyone with a Smartphone
Augmented reality avatars that mimic facial expressions are no longer the exclusive province of Animojis on the iPhone X or AR Emojis from Samsung. Camera app Snow has added its own alternative to Apple and Samsung's features, which it also calls AR Emoji, for iOS and Android.
News: New 'Jurassic World Alive' AR Game Takes Everything Great About Pokémon Go & Adds Dinosaurs
The premise of Jurassic World revolves around splicing genes to create new dinosaurs, so it is fitting that the location-based AR game is a clone of Pokémon GO merged with the DNA of the Jurassic Park franchise.
News: Samsung's AR Emoji Gets Super with Addition of Pixar's 'The Incredibles 2'
Just in time for the release of Pixar's highly anticipated sequel, AR Emoji based on characters from The Incredibles 2 have arrived for Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+.
News: Coors & KFC Court Consumers for Memorial Day Weekend via Snapchat AR
Many Americans will celebrate the start of the summer this Memorial Day weekend with backyard cookouts, and two brands hope to solidify their invites to those parties through augmented reality experiences in Snapchat.
News: Liverpool Soccer Fans Can Try on the Team's Uniform in Augmented Reality with New Balance Snapchat Lens
New Balance is helping Liverpool Football Club (FC) fans see how they look in the team's new kits with an augmented reality experience in Snapchat.
News: Target Taps YouCam for Augmented Reality Cosmetics Web App
Department store chain Target is the latest retailer to offer an augmented reality cosmetics app for customers to virtually try on lipstick.
News: Google Updates AR App to Help Muslims Observe Ramadan When Offline
Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and prayer, is underway, and Google has rolled out several tools to help Muslims commemorate the event, including an augmented reality app.
News: Create & Explore Floating Orbs of Sound in AR with Fields App
When it comes to augmented reality apps, visually immersive experiences are plentiful, but audio experiences are somewhat underrepresented. A new app for iPhones and iPads seeks to shift the AR paradigm toward the latter.
News: Samsung's Galaxy S9 & S9+ Finally Get ARCore Support
Google's Pixel smartphone had a decent head start as one of the first devices to offer ARCore, but that early exclusivity has been frustrating for some Android device owners. Some of that frustration was relieved when Google added more Android devices to the ARCore list in February.
News: Tech Toothbrush from Samsung Incubator Graduate Uses AR to Help Kids Improve Brushing Habits
Kitten Planet, a spin-off company that grew up in Samsung's C-Lab incubator, has developed a connected toothbrush that teaches and motivates children to brush their teeth better via augmented reality while tracking their performance.
News: ABC News Seeks Audience with Royal Wedding Onlookers via AR App
If you have yet to receive your invitation to next weekend's royal wedding in the UK, then you can still experience part of the pomp and circumstance in augmented reality courtesy of ABC News.
News: Google Lens Gets Smarter with Text Selection, Style Recommendations, & Real-Time Search
During Tuesday's keynote at the I/O developer conference, Google unveiled new capabilities for its Lens visual search engine and expanded the availability of the platform in smartphone camera apps.
News: Google's ARCore Moves Past Apple's ARKit in the Race for Shared Augmented Reality Experiences
On Tuesday, at Google's I/O developer conference, the company announced a huge update to its ARCore augmented reality toolkit that matches the latest features of ARKit, and surpasses Apple's AR platform via support for shared experiences.
News: Google Working on AR Walking Navigation Mode for Maps
At Google's I/O developer conference keynote on Tuesday, ARCore may have been absent, but Google did preview a potentially trailblazing augmented reality feature for Google Maps.
News: 7-Eleven Joins Forces with 'Deadpool 2' for Augmented Reality App & In-Store Experience
With the theatrical premiere of Deadpool 2 less than two weeks away, the hype train for the sequel to 2016's surprise R-rated hit is gaining steam, and augmented reality is on board for the ride.
News: Lenovo's Star Wars — Jedi Challenges Now Lets You Battle Other Lightsaber Users in Augmented Reality
On this, the most cherished day for Star Wars fans, May the fourth, Lenovo has released a significant new update to its Star Wars: Jedi Challenges app: real person versus person lightsaber battles.
News: Follow in the Footsteps of Forensic Detectives & Solve Crimes with Oxygen's Augmented Reality App
The crime procedural show is the perhaps the most direct path to the average TV viewer's heart. Could the same hold true for augmented reality games?
News: Marvel's 'Avengers — Infinity War' Gets a Full Range of New AR Treats on Facebook
Like Marvel's Avengers, Facebook's Camera AR platform now has a number of new AR superpowers at its disposal, so it is fitting that Earth's Mightiest Heroes have the distinction of displaying them.
News: Snapchat Rides AR Ads to Boost in Revenue Despite Redesign Hiccups
During Snap Inc.'s quarterly earnings report, released on Tuesday, the company disclosed that it snagged a revenue total of $230.8 million for the first quarter of 2018, an increase of 54% compared to last year, largely fueled by its augmented reality offerings and other advertising products.
News: New York Times Hitchhikes on NASA's Mission to Mars via Augmented Reality
In the latest installment in its burgeoning augmented reality journalism practice, The New York Times is bringing its readers closer to Mars and NASA's latest spacecraft set to travel to the red planet.
News: Facebook Brings Its AR Camera Effects to Instagram & Messenger Apps
On Tuesday, on the one-year anniversary of the announcement of its AR Camera platform, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg revealed at the company's F8 developers conference that the platform will be extended to the company's Instagram and Messenger apps.
News: Marvel's 'Avengers — Infinity War' Leads Debut Issue of Moviebill's AR Magazine at Regal Movie Theaters
Riding the coattails of one of the biggest movies this year, the first edition of the new Moviebill augmented reality magazine will be available at Regal Cinema theaters nationwide this weekend alongside the release Avengers: Infinity War.
News: Saatchi Art Adds the Power of AR to Its Mobile App, Letting You See High-Priced Art in Your Home Before You Buy It
It appears we're in the midst of an augmented reality art boom, because in the same month that the famed Christie's auction house launched its mobile AR app, leading art gallery and art seller Saatchi Art has also announced its entry into the AR space.
News: Sherwin-Williams Uses Augmented Reality to Take the Guesswork Out of Paint Color Selection
Do you see a red door and wonder if it might be a good idea to paint it black? You could "ask Ask Sherwin-Williams," or, better yet, you could just ask the new augmented reality features in the retailer's mobile app.
News: Snapchat Tilts Its AR Lenses Toward Casual Gaming with Snappables
As if its users weren't already having enough fun with dancing hot dogs and face effects, Snapchat is upping the ante with a new kind of shared augmented reality content.
News: View the Lands You'll Conquer in 'God of War' with Mimir's Vision AR App
With the heavily anticipated installment of the God of War game series arriving on April 20, PlayStation has taken the opportunity to make its first foray into mobile augmented reality with a companion app.
News: Star Wars Holochess Comes to ARKit-Friendly iPhones & iPads
Part of the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges experience that was once exclusive to users of Lenovo's Mirage AR headset is now available to anyone with an ARKit-compatible iOS device.
News: Coachella & Eminem Hit High Notes with Augmented Reality Mobile Apps
The annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is one of those events that everyone talks about, so an augmented reality experience in the festival's mobile app and from one of its headlining acts, Eminem, basically means the technology is officially cool.
News: Facebook Camera Can Now Change Your World into an AR Paint Canvas
For social media platforms like Facebook, augmented reality represents a whole new art form with which users can express themselves online. Now, Facebook is giving those users a new brush.
News: Nickelodeon Reels in AR Mode for Popular Mobile Game Sky Whale
One of the most popular mobile games out there for kids has added an augmented reality mode that brings the titular character into the real world.
News: Zara AR App Brings Virtual Models to Life in Stores
Department store chain Zara is temporarily ditching its mannequins and dressing up its stores with augmented reality experiences featuring virtual versions of real fashion models.
News: Apple iPhone X Owners Get a Trio of Super-Realistic Snapchat Lenses Aided by the TrueDepth Camera
Snapchat has released three new augmented reality Lenses that boast uber-accurate face tracking courtesy of the TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X and ARKit.