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At least two new devices, one from Sony and another from Xiaomi, have now been officially added to Google’s list of devices that support ARCore, XDA Developers reports. A third smartphone made by ASUS may be added in the near future too but for now, the two newest additions in question are Sony’s Xperia 1 and Xiaomi’s Mi 9.
That means Android users who happen to own those devices will now be able to download the ARCore by Google directly from the Google Play Store. In the simplest, once downloaded, the app provides a wealth of resources that applications can use to unlock a plethora of features centered around augmenting the surrounding world with virtual objects and information via the handset’s camera.
The third, unofficial addition
According to the source, the ASUS ZenFone 6 — or Zenfone 6z, depending on the region where the device is sold — also now works with ARCore, albeit not as a new addition to the list. The handset can’t download the associated app via the Google Play Store at all, in fact, but the app can be sideloaded and runs completely without any issues.
The implication here is that the ASUS smartphone will be added at some point in the near future and is effectively just awaiting certification or approval from Google to make things official. Other ASUS gadgets have garnered support on the AR front from Google in the past and the device is sufficiently specced so as to handle the assets associated with ARCore, so that’s not an unreasonable conclusion to arrive at.
ARCore
Google’s support for a broad range of handsets from effectively every carrier via its AR platform has grown extensively over the past several months to well over 50 devices.
That’s chiefly thanks to the fact that it isn’t too restrictive based on hardware, despite recent additions such as Augmented Faces API and Scene Viewer. The former of those is used for detecting specific portions of a user’s face for overlaying textures and other assets while the latter allows objects from the web and apps to be placed in augmented reality over top of the real world.
Those examples highlight exactly what ARCore is too, for those who may not know but whose devices are now officially supported. Rather than existing solely as a standalone app filled with AR experiences, ARCore is a set of tools used by other apps to enable enhanced AR experiences not available on other devices at the system level.
The newest additions to the lineup of officially supported devices, and the ASUS ZenFone 6 each ship with sufficient components, memory, and other requisites that they should easily be able to perform with the ARCore features. All three of the relatively new gadgets ships with a Snapdragon 855 SoC — Qualcomm’s top smartphone chip at the moment. Sony’s Xperia 1 backs that up with 6GB RAM while the remaining devices ship with up to 8GB of memory.
Other recent expansions to the line of ARCore supported gadgets include the entire new line of flagships and flagship killers from OnePlus. Those are the OnePlus 7, OnePlus 7 Pro, and OnePlus 7 Pro 5G.