Best AR apps in 2020: Augmented reality comes to your phone

Many have been using AR for a long time. And some have only heard, but there was no time to download the application to the smartphone and try it. AR is actively used in a variety of areas: entertainment, education, design, etc. More and more Augmented Reality programs are appearing in mobile app stores. Let’s consider the most popular AR for Android and iOS.

Google Translator

The Google Translator in the Augmented Reality application list seems to be an outsider, but it is no longer as simple as it seemed recently. As before, the software translates texts into more than 100 languages. And Augmented Reality technology is implemented with a smartphone or tablet camera. Point it at a text that requires translation, and almost instantly get a translation in the desired language. This translation mode is especially relevant in travel.

Star Walk 2 – Night Sky Map

The Star Walk 2 app allows you to turn your smartphone into an interactive pocket planetarium. By pointing the gadget at any part of the sky, you can get a detailed map of the starry sky and a variety of information about space objects. By pressing the camera button, you can combine the image with the stars on the display, thus creating augmented reality effects. If desired, you can find a specific celestial body in the sky or track the movement of space objects in the past or future.

SketchAR

Beautiful drawings can cause not only admiration but also envy among those who cannot draw. Learning to draw is very difficult and not everyone has the time to do it. AR technology will help you master fine art. And you don’t have to sit at a table to do it. Special labels that appear on the screen help the novice artist create a particular drawing on any suitable surface.

IKEA Place

When buying furniture, there is always the risk of making a mistake – both in size and style. Unlike clothes, furniture cannot be immediately “tried on”. The IKEA Place application greatly facilitates the choice of furniture and accessories, minimizing the risk of embarrassing errors. By choosing furniture items of interest from the IKEA catalog, you can use augmented reality to virtually place them anywhere in the room and see how they would look.

Wikitude

Walking around an unfamiliar city without a guide is difficult enough to navigate the location of attractions, hotels, catering facilities, and just to understand where you are at the moment. Thanks to the Wikitude application, you do not have to dig in the directory or impose passers-by. Simply hold the camera around you to get the information you need about the objects in the frame and useful for tourist locations nearby.

YouCam Makeup

YouCam Makeup uses the same facial recognition technologies like Snapchat, but for more utilitarian purposes. The software allows you to try on different variations of makeup and accessories: cosmetics, hair dye, sunglasses, and so on. You can also use the application to analyze your skin and monitor its condition.

AR Ruler

ARuler turns the smartphone into a multi-functional measuring device that allows you to measure linear dimensions, distance to a specific point, angles, area, volume, height, path. Simply aim the camera at the desired plane and start measuring.

VisualizAR

Back in the days of the legendary Winamp player, there was a fashion for visualization of music, when the player creates animated images that are synchronized with the track and displayed in real-time.

VisualizAR uses the Unity VFX Graph tool, with which you can create beautiful visual effects in real-time, such as a hologram or raindrops on glass. The developers of the application took the sphere as a basis. It can be placed anywhere by simple drag and drop, after which it starts to pulsate during the playback of the track. The real world can be turned off in the settings to enjoy the visualization only.