finally announced iOS support for Android ar on Monday, making good on a string of rumors that have persisted since the last major ar update reached a crescendo last week when Huawei outed iOS support on an accidental Amazon listing. ione owners won’t get the full ar experience that Android users get (see details below), but their smartwatch hardware options are about to explode.
On the phone side, the Android ar for iOS app will work on ione 5, 5c, 5s, 6 6 us running iOS 8.2 later. On the watch side, support is more limited: The app starts rolling out today, but currently only works with ’s tch Urbane. However, most future Android ar watches—including models from Huawei, Asus, Motorola, presumably even TAG Heuer—should be ione-compatible.
The Huawei tch is slated to offer iOS 8.2+ support. It looks like ione Messages will be routed through ’s Hangouts platform, but users won’t be able to respond to messages from the watch.
y this matters: For most ione users, Android ar support will be inconsequential. Apple’s most smartwatch-curious customers have already bought an Apple tch, or plan to do so as the platform improves with watchOS 2. And those ione users who don’t fall in these two camps are probably too smartwatch-ambivalent to give Android ar a serious look.
Indeed, we’re probably looking at a very slim slice of potential converts: ione users who totally love the services universe—Gmail, Calendar especially Now— folks who want a smartwatch, but prefer the design of, say, a round-faced Huawei tch over the lozenge-shaped Apple tch.
Still, the move is a no-brainer on ’s part. If it’s already spending untold riches on smart contact lenses broadb balloons, why not drop a little development money on a relatively simple iOS app? The payoffs in cross-platform bragging rights are worth the price of entry alone.
at Android ar for iOS does doesn’t do
For now, we can only glean broad-stroke indications of what ione owners will be able to do with Android ar watches. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), iOS users won’t be able to use current third-party Android ar apps available in ay. However, they will get simple notifications for all the iOS apps that already appear on their iones. They’ll also have access to apps richer notifications for various services.
notes rich notification support for Gmail, Calendar, Apple Calendar. Users will also get all of Android ar’s Now cards—the platform’s headline feature— access to -authored programs like Fit (i.e., step tracking heart rate data), ather, arm, Translate.
Gmail should be fully supported in the Android ar for iOS experience.
ione users will be able to see notifications for phone calls Messages, but unlike Android users, they won’t be able to respond to messages with voice dictation from their ar watches. That’s a bummer, but at least Now looks to emerge unscathed. ’s digital assistant is packed with surprise delight features, sending notification cards on traffic conditions, flight reminders, weather alerts other personally tailored tidbits at just the right moment.
And of course, you can use Now to solve simple math problems, learn the latest sports scores, pull off a host of other Googly search tricks directly from your watch.
So while Android ar for iOS doesn’t offer the complete ar experience, it does support “the mass majority of ar features we see our Android users using loving,” according to my source at . ’ll know the full story once we pair an ione with ’s tch Urbane, so please stay tuned for a hs-on.
