Mobile World Congress kicks off this weekend, and to celebrate, Google is launching version 1.0 of its “ARCore” Augmented Reality framework. Just like Apple’s ARKit, ARCore allows normal smartphones to run augmented reality apps. ARCore apps will either overlay 3D objects on top of the phone’s camera feed or allow you to use the phone as a camera in a 3D world, moving your viewpoint around as you move the phone.
For version 1.0, Google is greatly expanding the compatible devices for ARCore. Since ARCore requires calibration and a custom setup per device model, the minimum requirements aren’t based on an Android version but are instead limited to specific models. While the preview only supported the Google Pixels and Samsung Galaxy S8, today ARCore 1.0 is coming to a wide selection of flagship Android phones.
Google’s blog post lists the following phones as compatible: “Google’s Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL; Samsung’s Galaxy S8, S8+, Note8, S7 and S7 edge; LGE’s V30 and V30+ (Android O only); ASUS’s Zenfone AR; and OnePlus’s OnePlus 5.” All together, that’s about 100 million devices that can run augmented reality apps. In the future, Google says, “Samsung, Huawei, LGE, Motorola, ASUS, Xiaomi, HMD/Nokia, ZTE, Sony Mobile, and Vivo” will bring ARCore to their upcoming smartphone releases.
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