If you use AR on your Android phone, your experience is going to get enhanced a bit. Google has updated ARCore, its building block behind your AR experiences, with dual camera support. This means your experiences with AR will now be more realistic.
How Does the Current AR Work?
The current AR is designed in such a way that it only utilizes information from a single camera on your phone. Despite having multiple cameras, the SDK only relies on information given by a single camera.
This sometimes causes issues with the AR visuals. If you have used Google Search to play around with AR elements, you’ve probably noticed that your elements sometimes don’t show up the way they should.
How Does the Updated AR System Change This?
As shown in Google Play Services for AR app’s changelog, Google now allows developers to gather information from multiple cameras. This in-depth information allows your supported phone to produce better AR visuals.
Once this change goes into effect, you’ll be able to see the difference in the quality of AR visuals for yourself.
What Phones Are Getting the Improved AR?
Currently, the support for improved AR is extremely limited. You can only use this feature on a Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. This is probably because these phones sport a telephoto camera, which is useful for gathering data to create better AR visuals.
It’s surprising the feature isn’t available for other latest Pixel phones, such as Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a—both of which are some great phones with great cameras.
Will Your Android Phone Get Better AR Visuals?
While this updated AR currently only supports certain Pixel phones, it’s highly likely you’ll see this feature on various other ARCore supported devices in the near future. There’s actually a list of these supported devices on the Google Developers website.
If your phone is on that list, chances are you’ll soon be able to enjoy better AR experiences on your phone.
Do You Need to Update Your Phone to Get the Improved Feature?
Google Play Services for AR is an app that makes it possible for you to view and experience AR on your phones. This app is automatically installed and updated on your device, which means you don’t have to manually update your phone to get improved AR features.
Better AR Visuals Coming Your Way
If you aren’t happy with the current quality of AR experiences on your phone, that’s going to change soon. As soon as this update comes into effect, your supported Android phones will become more capable in terms of processing AR visuals.