Top Ten AR Apps in the History of Mobile

Intellectsoft
Jul 10, 2017 · 5 min read

Apple’s WWDC 2017 had many highlights, and ARKit, an AR app platform for the iPhone and iPad, was one of them. While Google’s promising Tango platform is currently available only on a handful of mobile devices, Apple’s ARKit will be available across the entire iOS ecosystem, making it “the largest AR platform in the world.”

Since Apple is famous for forwarding technologies and setting trends, the full-scale arrival of AR will immently start towards the end of 2017.

If you are planning to stay ahead of the competition and surprise your app’s users with AR experiences and features, now is probably the best time to get creative and start the planning process.

Intellectsoft has gathered the best apps in the history of AR to help you kickstart the creative process. From most recent examples, like NikeID AR app, to IKEA’s effective augmented reality catalogue, here are the AR apps to draw inspiration from — whether you want to gamify your app, build a custom enterprise application or healthcare software, or infuse your business with any other software solution.

NikeID in-store AR app (2017)

Nike utilises an AR app in their brand new invention at the Nike Store on Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Customers put one of three available sneakers into the stand-like device and use the tablet app built into the device to customise the it. The application instantly projects the changes on the sneaker by activating the augmented video-mapping devices installed into the stand.

The AR app marks Nike’s effort to merge the online and in-store shopping experience. The stand is a physical extension of Nike’s highly popular online sneaker customization service, NikeID. This also means that users can login with their existing credentials to create their unique sneaker designs.

The NikeID app is by far one of the best examples of an AR app in action: the experience is frictionless, and the customer value is high.

The Sample AR app (2010)

Converse came up with an AR app that overlays a shopper’s foot with a sneaker of their choice using the smartphone camera to see if it matches and fits. There was an in-app purchase option (The Sampler is no longer available), and the users could share photos with sneakers on social media.

Google Translate (2017)

Translate can’t be called a full-scale AR app, but it has an effective augmented reality feature nonetheless. The app’s camera mode allows users to take a photo of a text and then translate it to over a dozen languages. Considering that Translate now utilises machine learning, the spot-on translations could be useful anywhere — in the enterprise, on a trip, or anywhere else.

IBM’s Shopping AR App (2013)

IBM has created an an essential AR app for retail. Using the smartphone’s camera and advanced image processing technologies, their custom mobile app delivers on a promise of a personalised shopping experience by providing product information and comparisons when a smartphone is pointed at an item. The app can be used to send personal offers, loyalty rewards, incentives, as well as suggesting similar products. On top of that, IBM’s AR app also ranks products on a number of criteria, like price and nutritional value.

IKEA’s AR Catalogue App (2013)

IKEA’s app can be easily regarded as the classic AR app. The users simply pull up a smartphone or a tablet and point their cameras to the spot where they want to put the chosen piece of furniture, to see if fits and matches the room. Introduced to iPhone and Android devices back in 2013, the app is popular to this day.

IBM and NY Times AR app (2017)

Drawing inspiration from Pokemon Go, IBM and New York Times decided to gamify lessons in history. Their Outthink Hidden augmented reality app invites users to find historical figures in science and technology in 150 location across the US. Upon finding a pedestal with a QR code, the users will access their statue, biographical information, and related visual and audio content.

Skype for HoloLens (2016)

Microsoft’s promising and much-anticipated AR headset HoloLens doesn’t have a commercial release date yet, but enterprises, custom mobile app development companies, and other businesses can already buy and test it. More importantly, there’s a suite of AR applications available — including Skype. Promotional video content is one thing, but the existing user videos already showcase that Skype for HoloLens can be valuable in daily usage — be it a Skype call to a friend or taking your Chinese client on a full-scale virtual trip through your US office without the need for both of you to leaves your offices.

Gap Dressing Room AR App (2017)

Gap’s AR app has all the chances to become a time-savior option for those too busy to go shopping. With the Dressing Room feature, users pull up their smartphone and outline their body dimensions which then become reflected in a mannequin on the smartphone screen that appears in any spot you point the camera to. Concurrently, the app provides all the necessary product information in a clean interface, making the purchase even easier.

Anatomy 4D AR app (2015)

This augmented reality application helps users learn human anatomy in a compelling way. Users print out images with differents parts of human body and heart, and they come alive on the screen of their mobile device in intricate detail. The systems of a human body can be examined individually and up-close, with a Zoom option. Anatomy is visually stunning, well-developed, and immaculately designed, making the process of learning anatomy a pleasure. More so, it illustrates how augmented reality apps can contribute to various operations in healthcare and education.

Snapchat (2011, AR app feature introduced in 2015)

According to Ari Bloom, CEO of Avametric (who built the aforementioned augmented reality app for GAP), AR has a gentler learning curve than VR. Here, Snapchat is a better example than even Pokémon Go. Employing face recognition, the messaging app’s widely popular “Lens” feature allows users to overlay selfies and other photos with different effects — a simple but sufficient AR feature that indicates people will readily embrace augmented reality apps (the number of Snapchat’s daily active users has amounted to 166 million in May 2017).

Intellectsoft

Written by

Full-cycle software development services for startups and enterprise clients — Blockchain, AI, IoT, AR, UX. https://www.intellectsoft.net/

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