Apple’s newest iteration of the iOS mobile operating system is here, and with it comes the ability to turn your iOS 11 compatible device into an honest-to-goodness augmented reality viewer. Thanks to a few months of lead time with Apple’s developer tool ARKit, the App Store already has plenty of useful apps and interesting games boasting AR capabilities.
IKEA Place
One of the most talked-about ARKit apps is here, IKEA Place. Letting you virtually ‘place’ IKEA products in your home to figure out if they actually fit, the app features everything from the company’s unpronounceable sofas to it’s equally unpronounceable coffee tables. If only it included a flatpack model that showed how big the damn box was before trying to fit it in your car.
Zombie Gunship Revenant AR
Zombie Gunship Revenant is a unique zombie shooter where you take control of a heavily-armed helicopter gunship and obliterate zombies from the sky as they run around a military complex. Complete with fake heatmap and plenty of radio chatter, it’s amazing how realistic it all looks.
Follow Me Dragon
Ok, so there’s also some pretty silly AR apps too. Exhibit A: Follow Me Dragon. Although we can’t say how long something like this will actually be fun (especially for $2), there is an undeniable novelty in owning your own dragon that’s too hard to turn down. You can poke him, make him do tricks, take selfies with him, change his skin color and a bunch more basically useless things that will make your kids giggle.
World Brush
Art is everywhere with World Brush. You can create and post your 3D paintings anonymously at the approximate GPS location you created it. To combat the inevitable onslaught of phallic artistry, users have the ability to like, dislike and report paintings The app also uses a scoring algorithm that combines popularity and time of creation so you can always view the best stuff at your location.
Housecraft
IKEA Place is great, but if you’re looking for something a little more generic, Housecraft has a wider selection of 3D models to choose from if you’re planning out a new space including the ability to save the whole room configuration for later viewing.
Measure Kit
MeasureKit contains 7 AR measuring tools for those impromptu moments when you need to measure anything and everything including:
- Ruler — measure straight lines on any surface, such as a desk or wall.
- Trajectory — measure by “drawing” (moving your device) in the real world.
- Marker Pin — measure distance from device camera to fixed points in space.
- Angles — measure corners.
- Person Height — measure how tall someone is.
- Cube — visualize how big something is.
- Level — check if something is horizontal or vertical
The Machines
Featured onstage at the iPhone X unveiling was Directive Games’ AR real-time strategy game, The Machines, featuring a PvP arena and a selection of robot warriors. Playable online or in the same room as your friends, The Machines is basically the game we all wanted when we were six.
Sky Guide AR
Finding stars in the sky is easy. Just look up. Figure out the names and constellations is another matter entirely though. With Sky Guide AR, identifying stars, planets and satellites is easier than ever.
