Samsung’s current flagship devices -- the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus -- now come with full support for ARCore, the augmented reality platform developed by Google. It was around seven months ago when the South Korean tech giant had first revealed that it had struck a partnership with Google in order to incorporate support for ARCore on the phone maker’s flagships at that time, which include the Galaxy S8, the Galaxy S8 Plus, and the Galaxy Note 8. But when its Galaxy S9 models had officially hit store shelves everywhere back in March early this year, the handsets did not come with ARCore, with Samsung promising that support should roll out in a few weeks.
But thankfully, that roll out has apparently already started. This year’s recently concluded Google I/O developer conference had seen the formal release of ARCore 1.2, and soon after that announcement, several owners of Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus units have taken to Reddit to report that the augmented reality platform now works on their device without having to resort to unofficial workarounds. On top of that, Samsung’s latest high profile smartphone releases are also now included in the list of handsets that officially come with ARCore support (check out the list here).
So how do Galaxy S9 users go about using Google’s ARCore platform? They can start by downloading and installing the ARCore mobile app from Google Play. Then right after, they can proceed to searching and loading any other app from Google Play that takes full advantage of the platform (such as My Tamagotchi Forever or Pottery BArn 3D Room View).
Anyone who has played 2016’s ridiculously successful Pokemon Go mobile game basically has an idea that if used in clever ways, augmented reality can indeed blow one’s mind. While it is true that various science fiction movies have depicted the technology in so many outlandish ways, the real life application of augmented reality is actually much simpler, but remarkably more accessible to any consumer with a compatible smartphone device.
And developers were quick to pick up on how augmented reality can deliver a fun and useful experience for today’s mobile users. While some ARCore apps lean more towards the mobile game type, others are using Google’s augmented reality platform in other equally interesting ways -- like the aforementioned Pottery Barn 3D Room View, which lets users place virtual pieces of furniture on any empty floor space, or ARuler, which serves as an AR ruler that lets users measure any real object (or space) using only the camera on their smartphone.
