Augmented Reality Tools for Mobile: Web or Native?

Navigating augmented reality (AR) products can be difficult for a developer just starting to work in AR. There are a lot of options in terms of how to deliver augmented reality content to your audiences and customers. Here is a list of different options you have when creating your digital product:

Native or Web-based?

• When developing for AR, it is important to know how you want to deliver your AR content to the end-user. If you have a game, you may want to build an app, which requires building different versions for IOS and Android products. Both types of mobile products have their own languages for developing apps, and they both have specific AR outlets for displaying AR: Quick Viewer for IOS and AR Core for Android products. Both can require some preexisting knowledge of Swift (for Quick Viewer) and Kotlin (for AR Core)

IOS Products

Quick Viewer

• Swift
• IOS can have some issues delivering animations through Quick Viewer and uses mainly .reality files and .usdz files.

Android products

AR Core

• Kotlin
• For app-based experiences, translating your experience for both Android and IOS products is essential.

Third-Party Tools for Web

Model Viewer

• Vanilla.js
• Bring the link into a basic JS page and follow their directions. Model Viewer is great for products that just need to be viewed ( like 3D models of furniture for a furniture store ), and will show animations on the preview page, but usually has difficulties showing an animated figure in AR mode, which can be disappointing if you have an animated interaction or chart

8th Wall

• A great tool for those willing to pay, 8th Wall developers have done most of the work for you regarding backend, frontend, and Augmented Reality tricks. This is a high-powered tool with lots of potential, and you can both use their hosting system and self-host, which increases your customization options. Using 8th Wall hosting can be problematic when trying to import Javascript modules like Axios, et cetera.
• Internally, they use either Aframe.js or Three.js, depending on your preferences.
• High prices

Aframe.js or Three.js

• Both of these are frontend languages, so they are not viable without a backend but
• Three.js tends to be more powerful and customizable but takes more time to learn, even for those familiar with JavaScript.
• Aframe.js is extremely easy to learn if you are familiar with Javascript. This is very Beginner Friendly with straightforward documentation.
• As long as you can host the backend, these frontend languages are really powerful and fun tools to use.

Zappar

• No coding, just designing in 2D and 3D
• This is great for product designers who don’t want to pay for developers. As long as you have your text, 2D, and 3D assets with you, Zappar is a great tool, but it is rigid, so customizing it to your specific use case can be difficult if you are wanting to do something more complex or uncommon. For simple educational purposes, however, this seems like an incredible tool for teachers wanting to use visual interactions.

Conclusion

It can be difficult navigating the different AR development options out there to determine what is the best option for your project but augmented reality tools are improving every day. If you can sort through which is best suited for your needs, you have a lot of power to make incredible experiences.