What is ARCore and which smartphones are compatible with this technology?

Today we are going to talk about what is ARCore and which smartphones are compatible with this technology. Whether you are interested in a game with augmented reality like Pokémon Go or the new The Witcher, this tool will be really helpful.

What is ARCore?

Google defines ARCore as a platform for creating augmented reality experiences. The definition is somewhat cryptic, but it comes to be something like a system that Android mobile phones have to analyze the environment and be able to make the calculations to locate virtual objects in the real world.

ARCore was born in 2017 as Google’s augmented reality system and as a response to its Apple equivalent included in the iPhone, ARKit. The company is using special sensors to process the object in the environment.

The possibilities and precision of ARCore are increasing periodically, and not all ARCore-compatible smartphones are able to take advantage of all its capabilities, but its operation today is based on three fundamental pillars:

• Motion tracking: By using the phone’s sensors and camera recognition.
• Environmental understanding: The ability to detect the size and location of different surfaces and their angles.
• Light estimation: The mobile phone can estimate the light in a particular location and use the information to integrate virtual objects in a more realistic way.

ARCore is an API created by Google and requires the mobile phone to have Google Play Services for AR installed which are available on Google Play. The advantage of being a universal API is that developers can use its functions without having to create their own implementation from scratch.

In short, ARCore is a way for apps and games on Android to create augmented reality elements. As we mentioned before, ARCore’s utility is to enable applications to create augmented reality experiences. ARCore does the hard work so games like Pokémon Go can “realistically” position the Pokémon, and they stay in the same virtual place, even if you move the mobile phone.

Which smartphones are compatible with ARCore?

Doing the calculations to understand the environment requires certain minimum requirements: a decent camera, a processor powerful enough, and sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscope.

Google shows a list of all ARCore-compatible smartphones, though it’s important to note that the list is not final. Some phones are released without official ARCore certification and will receive it later. Periodically, Google updates the list of compatible phones. This is the updated list of ARCore compatible smartphones: