5 Augmented Reality Apps All Business Owners Should Know About

Augmented Reality is transforming industries. The uses for the technology are fast expanding and business owners need to be able to adapt and utilise it if they want to stay competitive.

AR enables us all to communicate ideas in more visual, interactive and convenient ways than ever before. This is why it makes perfect sense for businesses to begin integrating it into the core of their infrastructures.

We understand that AR can seem intimidating for those who may be unaware of the full scope of uses it can provide, which is why we have outlined a few key apps that we feel are carving the future path for AR and identifying some of the ways the technology is slotting itself into existing industries.

1. JIGSPACE

We love the concept of this app. Jigspace is a platform that content creators can use to share interactive 3D models of just about anything with the aim of helping people to understand how things work. The brand’s slogan is ‘We learn better in 3D’ and we couldn’t agree more. It’s extremely useful being able to view and interact with something live when you’re trying to learn, and this is something we strive to include in many of our own training solutions applications.

We hope that this app really takes off as it would be great to see more ‘jigs’  available to view. But for now, if you want to see what the future of education and training looks like, this is it.

2. IKEA PLACE

This app has been talked about everywhere over the past few months and it’s no surprise as to why. It is well understood that people now prefer to shop online from the comfort of their own homes than in physical stores, but the age old issue burdening the online retail industry for a long time has been the inability to preview a products size, shape, colour and placement when the product isn’t available physically. This is where product visualisation apps come in very useful. They allow customers to simulate what a product would look like on themselves or within their environment prior to buying it. It’s clear why an integration of AR in retail in this context is of use and we think it’ll become an industry standard to include this functionality in future.

So, although product preview apps are not necessarily a completely new development, it is great to see a global retailer such as IKEA firmly place their mark on the consumer AR industry and identify the importance of such a capability in the current day and age.

3. WIKITUDE

Behold the future of advertising. The Wikitude AR app allows users to explore their surroundings and see more than what first meets the eye. By scanning Wikitude enabled print media such as packaging, magazines, brochures and posters users are opened directly into interactive advertising campaigns there on the spot. Users can also enter a world view where points of interest such as shops, restaurants and facilities are identified using the app.

The concept displayed by Wikitude here is pretty game changing. This technology not only shows us what the future of advertising might look like, but also what the entire internet may eventually evolve into. Imagine a world where manually searching for information and products was replaced by users instinctively scanning the products or relevant topic and being presented with instantaneous interactive resources layered onto their real world view. Pretty cool.

4. EYE MAPS

Eye maps is an app that uses users locations to superimpose a 3D representation of their location over the real environment. It also displays points of interest and information over the locations to help enhance user’s journey’s.

Although the capabilities of this app at present are relatively limited, apps such as this are setting a trend in the way navigation services are changing. The days of simple Google Maps are behind us. We predict that more and more Geo based AR apps are going to begin enhancing the way we travel using real world references. For example, one day an app may not only tell us how to get to our destination, how long it will take and what route to take, but it may be able to show us this information over our real environment whilst recognising and highlighting local points of interest (shops, famous buildings etc) and other relevant information (speed cameras or road works) as we pass them on route.

5. CHALK

Ever been trying to troubleshoot a problem over a video call or exchanging scribbled diagrams or photos? If you answered yes then you will be extremely familiar with how difficult it can be when you can’t physically demonstrate exactly what you are referring to.

Introducing Chalk. Chalk operates much like a video call, but with the added capability that users can live draw over their camera view to annotate exactly what they are talking about. The drawn lines stay fixed in position in relation to the part of the object they were drawn over, meaning that users can co-cooperatively troubleshoot and demonstrate instructions in a much more easy to understand way than ever before.

This concept of enhanced communication is something that is undoubtedly going to grow as we see more and more AR apps become available. The technology has the power to revolutionise the way we explain and story tell and we’re looking forward to seeing what else developers have up their sleeves.

Overall, we can expect to see AR make an increasingly powerful impact on a wide variety of markets in the near future. It is important that business owners start opening their minds up to the technology now and make themselves aware of the many ways that AR can be used to enhance existing products and offerings.

All imagery courtesy of the relevant applications, sourced from the Apple App Store.