Real World

Welcome to the first annual Next Reality 30, our list of people who've made the biggest impact on the augmented reality space in the last 12 months — and what a 12-month roller-coaster ride it's been. Apple introduced ARKit-powered apps last fall, Google launched ARCore for An ...more

With the global COVID-19 pandemic preventing Pokémon GO players from venturing into the real world, developer Niantic has adapted the game for trainers to play in a socially-distanced manner. Likewise, with the annual Pokémon GO Fest, typically an exclusive gathering of playe ...more

Among a crowded field of AR cloud companies aiming to power the future of augmented reality by creating a world of persistent holographic content that lives in a cloud, accessible across devices and accounts, Ubiquity6 is hoping it has found a way to differentiate its platform ...more

Have you ever wanted to control a swarm of robots? Well, now you can! Robotics researchers at New York University (NYU) have created an app which controls 'bots from your smartphone, using augmented reality. This AR app would certainly come in handy when you want to make a cof ...more

Hello world! I thought it was about time that wonderhowto had its own World of Warcraft community. A place where gamers from all over the real world can come together to discuss the in and outs of the biggest and best MMORPG. Over the next few weeks you will see this world f ...more

It seems like it was just last week that AMC and Next Games unveiled their location-based zombie game based on hit TV series The Walking Dead. (Wait, actually it was just last week.) But, just like a walker seeking fresh flesh, AMC is back this week with another AR mobile app ...more

Now, when the weather outside is frightful, Pokémon GO players can expect it to be just as unpleasant in augmented reality. A new update to the popular location-based AR game brings a dynamic weather system to the game. In the new update, weather effects on the game's map wil ...more

The long tease that is the release of Minecraft Earth continues, this time with an opportunity to start playing what might be one of the hottest augmented reality games ever, before the general public. As promised back in May, Microsoft has opened up its closed beta program f ...more

Because augmented reality is still so new to so many people, there are a number of would-be experts opining online, often repeating basic facts anyone with a spare 15 minutes can find on their own. That's why it's important to point out when someone delivers what could be cons ...more

Card games like Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and the like have offered engaging fantasy worlds for players—but not without significant help from their imaginations. Video games and cartoons may have helped build these worlds, but mixed reality finally offers an opportunity t ...more

Niantic first unveiled its AR cloud back in 2018, using it to enhance the immersive capabilities of its gaming portfolio. Now, the company is expanding access to the system, allowing third-party developers to take advantage of next-generation augmented reality features for th ...more

There are plenty of apps that can translate text on websites and even in the real world. But when you need to write a message in a language you don't speak, it's your keyboard that will come in handy the most. Google Translate is integrated into Gboard, allowing you to transl ...more

The long-awaited augmented reality game based on the Harry Potter franchise from Pokémon GO masterminds Niantic is closer to release, as the developer has begun public beta testing of the app. On Tuesday, the beta version of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, built in partnership w ...more

Hollywood loves sequels so much that studios and their marketing teams are not too proud to release a sequel of an augmented reality promotion. After webbing up a web-based augmented reality experience to promote the theatrical release of Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, So ...more

HTC is entering the augmented reality market through the back door by giving developers access to the stereo front-facing cameras on the Vive and Vive Pro VR headsets. The company announced on Wednesday, April 11, an update to the OpenVR camera API that will enable developers ...more

Augmented reality developers are rapidly bringing science fiction tropes into the real world, with the latest example leveraging the TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X to emulate the cloaking technology made famous by movies like Predator and Marvel's The Avengers. Japanese dev ...more

With just a few more days to go before its release in theaters, the Star Wars: The Last Jedi push has gone into overdrive. On Monday, Google released "The Last Jedi AR Stickers," a set of augmented reality stickers that lets users put a number of different Star Wars characters ...more

If giving truly is better than receiving, then The Box AR should be the best ARKit app available when iOS 11 releases next week. Dad jokes and hyperbole aside, developer 8ninths puts a creative spin on placing holograms on the user's view of the real world. Every 24 hours, A ...more

With many office workers in the US being asked to work from home if their job allows, Magic Leap's customary updates for the Lumin OS and Lumin SDK brings some help to keep distributed workforces connected. Chief among the new features arriving with Lumin OS version 0.98.10 a ...more

The emerging narrative as CES begins is that consumer-grade smartglasses require a heavy compromise in functionality in order to arrive at a form factor and price point that appeal to mainstream customers. China-based startup Nreal is ready to subvert those expectations with ...more

By now, you already know that the Magic Leap One ships with an array of apps to immediately get you accustomed to operating in your new spatial computing reality. The first one we're going to focus on is Screens, an app we told you about previously, but only now have managed t ...more

This time last year, we got our first taste of what mobile app developers could do in augmented reality with Apple's ARKit. Most people had never heard of Animojis. Google's AR platform was still Tango. Snapchat introduced its World Lens AR experiences. Most mobile AR experien ...more

Exploring a new city is tough if you're all by your lonesome. But if you have your iPhone on you, you're not alone at all... there's tons of great apps available for discovering the city around you. We've previously featured an app that helps you decide on what bar or club to ...more

ARGs have taken the concept of video games to some odd and wonderful real-world places. Socks, Inc. might not be the first ARG, and LittleBigPlanet might have defined the sock-puppet-based game archetype, but it is the first game to combine ARG and sock puppet elements into on ...more

Imagine you wanted to make LEGO art, and you chose to make a spooky, abandoned house, like something out of economically depressed Detroit. You'd have something that emerged from the LEGO culture coined "Dark Ages": that period in a LEGO fan’s life when he or she sets aside L ...more

While a release date for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has not yet materialized, co-developers Niantic and WB Games have finally released gameplay footage and an in-depth game description to whet the appetites of eager Harry Potter fans. In addition to the reveal of gameplay fo ...more

Snap Inc. is no stranger to augmented reality. In fact, AR has been the Snapchat app's most popular feature, as face filters continue to update and change the way we communicate with each other. But in a new move, Snap Inc. is showing its commitment to improving AR and its rea ...more

Location-based AR game Ghostbusters World is creeping closer to launch, and developer FourThirtyThree has released some new gameplay footage and a trailer to capture the interest of the living. As hinted by previous gameplay reveals, the game from Sony Pictures and franchise ...more

Most of today's mobile augmented reality apps focus on individual experiences, but a new entrant into the space wants to make things a bit more social. Battle tested for years in the realm of virtual reality, vTime is finally bringing its immersive social chat experience into ...more

Magic Leap just did something it didn't do during its recent Twitch hardware demo: show us some new demo footage of what augmented reality really looks like through the Magic Leap One. During this week's Unite Berlin conference, an event dedicated to Unity developers, Magic L ...more

Because timing is everything, the latest entry in the location-based augmented reality gaming sweepstakes, Ghostbusters World, has arrived just in time for Halloween. Launched Monday on the App Store and the Google Play Store, Ghostbusters World shares its perfect timing with ...more

What do you do when your favorite new car is still two years away from hitting the road? Look to augmented reality, of course. That's what one app developer did in the wake of Elon Musk's Tesla Cybertruck reveal a couple of weeks ago. Now, anyone looking to get their own up-c ...more