Remember the thrill of seeing a Pikachu in your front yard?
Pokemon Go, the game that brought augmented reality into the mainstream (or the main screen?), seems like a lifetime ago. By now we’re familiar with AR being used to help you choose furniture (like IKEA’s app) or try on clothes (like Wannakicks).
But AR isn’t just for e-commerce. Here are 16 lesser-known AR apps as awesome examples of how AR can entertain and engage in so many different ways, and sometimes also be practical too.
Even though we’re all ready to go back to immersion in real life reality after a year of being cooped up by COVID-19, we may have to rein ourselves in a little bit longer. So for some indoor fun, check out these 16 gems to learn new skills, have fun with your kids, or even get a cool new tattoo.
Transport yourself to new worlds
Bring art and history to life with Google Arts & Culture
Ever wonder what you’d look like in Cleopatra’s jewelry? Or dream of holding a 500 million year old creature in the palm of your hand? Google Arts & Culture uses AR to bring items from museum collections around the world so close you can almost touch, or hold, or wear them.
And if your mom always claimed you were a work of art, you can prove her right by transforming or matching your selfies to iconic paintings.
When you’re tired of trying on ancient Egyptian jewelry, there’s enough non-AR content here to keep you busy for months. Have you ever visited Thomas Edison’s laboratory? How about the top of Macchu Picchu? Walked the Great Wall of China? Explore amazing sites and museums around the world - all from your living room.
Explore stars and planets with Skyview
Chances are that you know how to look at the sky and find the Big Dipper (if you’re in the right hemisphere, that is). But how about Scorpio? Or Saturn? The Andromeda Galaxy? The Pipe Nebula? Just point your device at the sky and Skyview will point them all out for you. It’s like a personal planetarium.
Travel into the story with Wonderscope
When a friend’s daughter was four years old, she insisted that she was Mama Bear from the Berenstain Bears, and requested that her name be changed to match.
My own kids have often asked for certain stories to be read - over and over and over again - so that they could relive the adventure. Wonderscope uses AR to enable you to interact with the characters in the stories as you read them.
Jumanji is sounding less far out these days...
Available on: Apple,
Build, build, build (while you still can) with Minecraft Earth
Pikachu not your style? Maybe a hostile mob of zombies is?
MInecraft Earth debuted in late 2019, giving you the ability to play an ongoing AR game of Minecraft with players the world over.
Unfortunately, Minecraft plans to end support for this app in June 2021, saying that they didn’t see enough usage during the pandemic. My guess is that we’ll be seeing more like it once things go back to semi-normal. But if you want to try it out, go get it while it’s still around!
Take a tour of the human body with Google Search’s View in Your Space
Take your skeletons out of the closet… and put them on your living room sofa.
If you search for certain (mainly life sciences) concepts in Google, in addition to getting regular results, you’ll see the option to “View in 3D” and then the option to “View in Your Space.” Choosing that option lets you get up close and personal with an AR human body, giant panda, or Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit.
Available on: Google Search
Develop your creative side
Learn to draw with Da Vinci Eye
Think you can’t draw to save your life? This app might change your mind.
You can use it to virtually project images for you to trace, even breaking down images into layers by color value so you can draw it in gradual stages.
But Da Vinci Eye actually provides resources to help you to move beyond reliance on it. Step by step lessons and tutorials teach you how to draw without the app, or you can use it as a proportion checker for freehand drawings.
Paint in thin air with 3DBrush
When you’re tired of trying to look like a professional artist, let your imagination go for a wild ride with 3DBrush. Fireworks going off in your room? Neon skywriting? Exploding breakfast cereal? If you can dream it up, you can see it in (augmented) real life.
This is the app that will let you see the handwriting on the wall - in orange, fuschia or electric green.
Available on: Apple
Bring color and silliness into your life with GIPHY World
Okay, so when you feel that neon skywriting just isn’t enough and you’ve REALLY got to let loose, turn in your 3DBrush for GIPHY World.
Overlay GIFs and stickers on your real world camera for photos and videos with an air of the unbelievably silly. Put dancing 3D hot dogs on your sofa, hang Saturn from your ceiling, get a knight in shining armor to gallop down your driveway… and then share it all with your friends, of course.
Available on: Apple
Become a piano virtuoso (maybe) with Piano 3D
Always wanted to play piano? Just always wanted a grand piano in your living room? Check out Piano 3D. The AR mode (there is also regular 3D mode and Portal mode) lets you place a beautifully rendered piano in your room, choose the song and see the keys and hammers moving. Here’s a great screenshot from a their demo video:
3D Piano also has different teaching tools for learning to play piano. This is the app for listening to piano, learning piano, discovering new piano music... in short, experiencing piano.
Available on: Apple
Just for fun
Turn yourself into a spiky monster or jiggly robot with Super You
Have you ever wondered what you would look like if your body was covered by randomly colored spikes or feathers? No? I hadn’t either. But when I saw this wild Super You demo from the collaboration of technologists and artists at Universal Everything.
This app easily wins the award for most unusual. I can see us all being able to turn ourselves into various Disney monsters soon, or even be able to design our own creatures from scratch.
Available on: Apple
Have an out-of-body experience with Ghost Lens AR
Well, you can at least look like you’re having an out-of-body experience with AR that shows your spirit leaving your body, hovering spookily, cloning itself and following you until it reaches out its clammy ephemeral hands and…AAAAAUUUUUGH!
Record spooky videos, adding music and other haunted effects that will have your friends shouting BOO! (as a compliment).
Available on: Apple,
Walk with dinosaurs with Monster Park
T-rexes and raptors and triceratops, oh my! Monster Park lets you take photos and videos of yourself having some prehistoric experiences.
Solve practical problems
Leave virtual notes for apartment renters or guests with Indoor AR Guide
Once I stayed at an AirBNB rental, and they had an entire binder full of instructions for operating everything in the apartment. (Did I read it? Take a guess.) Indoor AR Guide turns your entire binder into a friendly AR walk through your property. Any info you want your guests to have about your rooms, furniture, appliances, view, anything - they’ll be able to see as an overlay on that very item.
Indoor AR Guide is host-friendly, guest-friendly and tree-friendly. Score!
Available on: Apple
Try out tattoos with Inkhunter
A tattoo is not the kind of thing where you want to be going “Oops - that looks different than I thought it would.” Inkhunter gives you the ability to see exactly how a tattoo will look on your body before you make a decision. Unfortunately, it still can’t tell you if you’ll regret your tattoo in a few years…
Get help solving tricky math problems with Photomath
Photomath is known as the “camera calculator.” Take a picture of any math problem and get an answer… but not only an answer: Photomath is almost like a virtual tutor, solving the problem step by step on-screen so you can learn exactly how to do it.
Search for info on anything you can take a photo of with Google Lens
Love the light fixture you see in your vacation cabin? Dying to know what that beautiful flower in the city garden is? Want to identify the strange bugs on your patio (and how to get rid of them)? Just snap a picture and use Google Lens. It’s like Google Search for the world around you.
Caution: strangers might not like it if you go pointing your phone directly at their accessories. Better to go low-tech and just ask them where they bought that killer pair of shades.
Available on: Android
Ready to have some augmented fun?
I hope you’ll give these a try - and new ones seem to be popping up every day. As AR development and design tools keep improving, we’re sure to see a lot more in the coming months.