Awkward Adolescence

The State of the AR in Q1 2021

Phone-based augmented reality applications have seen a steady uptick over the past few years, mostly because they can be more useful and/or entertaining than the status quo.

AR-enhanced shopping is great at giving prospective buyers a better understanding of products, and has increased sales and reduced returns compared to traditional methods.

AR entertainment experiences create a sense of approachable magic by mixing a user’s familiar environment with the almost limitless creative possibilities of computer-generated content. And after spending the better part of the last year staring at the same four walls, who couldn’t use a little augmentation?

So what’s the catch?

Well, right now these experiences aren’t easy to create because the technology is going through an awkward adolescent stage. We’ve all been there (or at least I have).

What this means practically is there is currently no “best way” to create a given AR experience, but instead, a constantly evolving matrix of possibilities, each with its unique set of pros and cons.

At Balti Virtual, we realized a couple of years ago that we needed to go beyond just staying fluent in the latest technologies, and had to “think bigger” by considering all of the non-technical factors that contribute to delivering a successful AR experience for our clients.

As of right now (Q1 2021), we see four (and a half) major ways to create augmented reality experiences. It’s worth noting that these will almost certainly change over the next six months, with some approaches becoming irrelevant and others becoming indispensable.

Here they are, including their relative strengths and weaknesses:

1- Native Apps

This is the OG of AR, having been around since about 2011. Native apps offer the best graphics, highest interactivity, and just generally best “in AR” experience possible. 

The catch is that in order to start these experiences, a user has to install an app, a process that at best, requires multiple steps and takes a few seconds. At worst, it is a deal-breaking combination of trying to remember your app store password, free storage space on your device and wait a few minutes to download the app. Another wrinkle here is that in order to publish an app to the store, it must be reviewed and approved by the platform (Apple or Google), which can take a week or longer, so plan timelines accordingly!

1.5 - App Clips / Instant Apps

In an apparent nod to the annoyance of installing native apps, both Apple and Google have enabled an “app-lite” approach, called “App Clips” and “Instant Apps” respectively. These are developed alongside a native app, and are limited in size and capabilities, but can be opened seamlessly from a web page with just a quick popup instead of the fiddly app-store install process.

The downside here is that these are limited in size, still subject to the app review process, which can add uncertainty to project timelines, and must accompany a full native app.

2 - Social Media Filters

Social networking apps like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram bring many of the benefits of native apps and are likely already installed on most users’ devices. They also bring the added benefit of discovery: effects published to these platforms can be more easily found, accessed, and shared than other approaches.

That said, if a given user isn’t already on a social platform, it’s unlikely they will sign up just to try an AR experience. Similar to apps, there is a review process for filter/lens content, which can range from a few hours to weeks or more, and can be both opaque and arbitrary (our lens featuring an NFL player was rejected because it had multiple brand logos visible). Finally, Social filters are often limited in their ability to communicate with external sources to do fun and interesting things like multiplayer games or even shared leaderboards, which is decidedly anti-social.

3 - Web Browser

The good old web browser is becoming a mainstay of augmented reality experiences because it offers a compelling blend of easy access for users ( just go to a URL and grant camera permission) with a growing set of capabilities and easy deployment for creators (put your content on a web server). The emerging WebXR standard promises experiences comparable to apps, featuring plane and image recognition, with fantastic interactivity and interoperability with external services for more social experiences.

The catch is that these experiences lag behind their native counterparts in visual quality, as browser-based apps only have access to a limited set of a phone’s resources. Also, WebXR is currently only supported on a few Android devices, so to launch a web campaign in “the real world” requires using clever third-party software like 8th Wall which can introduce additional cost.

4- Quick Look / Scene Viewer

A couple of years ago, Apple and Google added AR features to their mobile operating systems called “AR Quick Look” and “Scene Viewer” respectively. These updates allow for simple 3D models and animations to come to life in AR without an app. These are roughly equivalent to browser-based AR, as they can use the latest and greatest phone features (like lidar depth sensing), but lack controls for lighting and visual touches like particles.

The downside is that this approach is extremely limited in terms of interactivity (essentially non-existent). This is fine for applications like product previews or simple animations, but can’t allow for more entertaining uses like games.

Summary

So given that there is no one “right” approach for augmented reality today, here’s a handy chart contrasting the pros and cons of each technology.

So what’s a brand to do here?

Aside from carefully weighing the pros and cons of each approach and finding the one that is right for each application, we’ve been experimenting with combining approaches through our HypARlink platform. This allows for a mix-and-match approach, where we’ve done things like serving content across Instagram and AR Quick Look, customized to each user's preferences and platform.

While the technology that enables AR continues to evolve, we feel confident that creating a single, customizable entry point into this growing mix of options will enable more people to discover and actually engage with the best experiences possible.

We’ll report back in a few months with the current “State of the AR” :-)