The barrier to entry into the world of augmented reality has therefore disappeared. Although the number of app downloads is increasing year on year, competition is also growing. In virtual shops (such as Goole Play or iTunes), the number of applications is growing faster than the number of installations. This means that there is a strong competition for users' attention and, ultimately, for storage space on their phones. Users are increasingly thinking twice before downloading something to their smartphone. They have noticed that, although they have dozens of different applications on their smartphone, they regularly use only a dozen or so!
The capacity of smartphones is also important. Even though new models have more and more memory, the number of films, photos and recordings stored on them is increasing year-on-year. It is easier for consumers to give up new apps than family photos.
Digital privacy is also a disadvantage. How do you feel when, shortly after installation, an app asks for access to your camera, voice recorder and mobile calendar? And when it additionally asks (and it will) if it can send you notifications and track your location? Well, that's it! Often, at this point, a just-installed app lands in the bin.
Anticipating these trends a few years ago, we were among the first in the world to build the web AR engine. With it, brands can make augmented reality available to all smartphone users. In the browser, without an app. We made it simpler for marketers to access consumers, and for consumers to access a world of new experiences.
The web AR engine is based on artificial intelligence that learns to look for markers in an image, such as a graphic, a set word or a colour. When they are detected, the system plays the predetermined effect and adds it to the smartphone camera view in real time.
