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MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.—Google is launching a new version of its augmented reality platform for Android, ARCore 1.2. Version 1.2 adds support for wall detection, launching an AR experience via image recognition, a new "Sceneform" framework, and a "Cloud Anchors" feature that enables shared experiences not just across Android devices—it works on top of iOS' ARKit, too.
Google launched ARCore version 1.0 in February as its big reboot of the Project Tango augmented reality project. Where Tango was focused on special hardware with extra sensors and cameras, ARCore tries to replicate some of that functionality on a normal smartphone. ARCore doesn't work on every single Android phone; instead, it works on a model-by-model basis (mostly on flagships) and requires some work from the device manufacturer. Most of the major Android OEMs, like Samsung, LG, and OnePlus, are signed up though, and today ARCore has a supported install base of more than 100 million devices.
Any developer who wants to can make an ARCore app, which will usually involve 3D objects overlaid on a video feed. The goal of ARCore (and any AR app, really) is to do enough detection of the world to make the 3D object seem like it exists as a real object inside the video feed. On the other side of the aisle, Apple's AR framework is called ARKit. While Google started the whole AR thing first with Project Tango all the way back in 2014, Apple first brought AR to a mainstream device by rolling ARKit out for the last few years of iPhones in 2017.

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