Recently Google Technology Company announced its new augmented reality project, ARCore which got everyone excited. But, it seems like the news was dumbed down when Google announced that they will be stopping their first AR project dubbed, Tango. Google has decided to draw its focus to the development of ARCore and thus will be pulling the plug on Project Tango in March next year.
What does the bird say?
The company tweeted that they will be shutting down Tango on March 1st, 2018. The tweet thanked the developers’ community and also mentioned that they will now be continuing with ARCore only.
We’re turning down support for Tango on March 1, 2018. Thank you to our incredible community of developers who made such progress with Tango over the last three years. We look forward to continuing the journey with you on ARCore. https://t.co/aYiSUkgyie
— Tango (@projecttango) December 15, 2017
Project Tango
Tango was Google’s first augmented reality venture. They knew the potential of AR and therefore launched the program in November 2014. The first Google Tango phone was released in 2016 with the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro. The hardware used to support this AR included sensors and cameras that could see in 3D space. Although it looked quite promising, it never seemed to take a good momentum. Asus Zenfone AR, which was launched in January this year, will be the last smartphone to include the Tang Project.
The Project Tango could only work on a dedicated hardware whereas the ARCore does not require such support. The new AR project makes use of existing hardware on smartphones, therefore, making it reach millions. It is said that the adoption rates of ARCore will be higher than Tango as it comes sans the additional hardware and can be adopted by any smartphone.
Although the news just came out only months after Google announced ARCore, it seems like the company has more confidence in their new platform and finds it more viable. Rumours say that the company was forced to abandon Tango because of the emergence of Apple’s ARKit. The Apple company’s augmented reality project was released in the iOS11 apps. Even after its release in 2014, the app could never reach a larger number of people because of the restraints that it came along with. The restriction of Tango AR is the main reason why it only remained available on two flagship devices. Thus the step taken by Google to discontinue Tango does seem to make sense.
What’s more?
Currently, the ARCore is not only limited to the Pixel phones but also Samsung’s Galaxy S8, S8+ and the Note 8. Google promises that once it gets an update of 1.0, it will be accessed by millions of users. ARCore’s Developer Preview 2 released this week with several improvements to the SDK. Google claims that it is working with smartphone companies like Asus, LG, Samsung, Huawei, amongst others.
Project Tango looks like it will be breathing its last with two flagships continuing the legacy. Although, it has been able to lay the foundation for ARCore and that is truly noteworthy. The new ARCore stickers, in order to blend in with the present, will also feature characters from Star Wars and Stranger Things.
