Back in 2015 the craze around augmented reality and all of its possibilities made for good stories and funding; In 2024, AR is in a weird spot that no one wants to address.
For me my daily interaction with augmented reality started with Pokemon Go, the hit geolocation based AR adventure game based on the successful and nostalgia driven franchise.
Placing Pokemon in 2D and taking almost immersive photos with them were fun and led to some hilarious moments.
But now, no one wants to use AR anymore nor are they incentivised to do so.
Where is augmented reality really being used?
AI is reaching a point where it is already a part of our daily lives; we are interacting with some form of it as long as we are digitally active.
But this is not the case with augmented reality.
Before we look at the ugly turn AR's growth has taken place, we look at all possible use cases of AR in day to day life.
Social AR for engagement and user generated content
All of us played a variant of the "Which character are you?" filter on Instagram or a 3D runner game that gave us points on collecting items.
That has gone away. Sure you will see some breakthrough Social AR effects but they are far and few.
Meta Spark Studio by Meta is closing down which means that AR creators cannot publish AR effects anymore.
Snapchat's Lens Studio is great but it fails to attract users of all age groups to be a part of their ecosystem. Most of their offerings are 1:1 in private chats be it with friends or group chats.
TikTok might be on the verge of getting banned soon, which means their AR effects will be unavailable in USA - a major market for understanding trends and user feedback.
WebAR and all of its tricks hasn't seen mass adoption.
In all honesty, augmented reality failed to develop on the promise that it would be accepted by e-commerce platforms.
To begin with, there are no platforms that are effective at launching AR campaigns or AR for your inventory. 8th Wall and its competitors are amazing but sadly the cost of running them are not feasible.
And to add to it, there are no frameworks and platforms that can enable AR mass usage across a website's store.
AR Mirrors and in store AR displays
AR Mirrors and in store AR displays can honestly be fun or cool or breathtaking depending on how these campaigns are activated.
But then again the cost of running these is high and brands would rather spend that elsewhere (marketing, photography, influencer marketing).
AR based mobile games
Apart from Pokemon Go there has not been a single game where I feel incentivised, motivated or curious to try AR features.
The general consensus is "yeah it's cool, tried it once and never again."
What puts AR in a difficult spot?
Various factors have contributed to AR not being able to gain mainstream usage in people's lives.
To blame one aspect would not be fair and therefore it makes sense to mention them for good reason.
Cost of developing AR is too high
Cost of AR effect development is extremely high making it not so feasible for brands.
There are no platforms yet that focus on reducing dependencies or problems faced by the creator or studio.
AI has take precedence over AR
It felt like you could get funding a decade ago if your app had AR features; now it needs to be AI.
Jokes apart, AI is seeing much of the traction before anything else.
The devices and their capabilities are abysmal
As an AR creator, mobile phones are powerful devices but not good enough to provide a surreal experience.
AR glasses seem promising but currently they are:
- Too expensive
- Out of reach for common folk
- Are early stage products for highly specific demographics.
There is no incentive to use augmented reality
Honestly, why would you use AR?
There are no incentives like there are with other marketing channels and methodologies. Brand spend so much in AR development that they do not have budgets left for promoting and incentivising usage.
Given the nature of assets in 3D and other variables, the load times are quite high too.
This repels the user from ever using AR in daily life instances.
Where is the future of AR?
I have always held the following thought:
"AI will lead to moral discourse; AR will lead to aesthetic discourse."
Those who can benefit will benefit by finding a way out.
As someone who has researched and worked in AR for daily use over the last 4 years, here are some of my thoughts:
- Last minute AR delivery will be an important aspect for brands who have leftover budget to use it in their campaigns.
- Templates that are niche to industries and events will thrive; brands need to swap a few assets, redesign and publish.
- Minimalist AR will see a small boom before we get to complex effects again.
- A platform enabling mass AR distribution will become a unicorn.
- An AR ads platform can easily be the next step in digital marketing experiences.
- Hyper-reality is still 5-10 decades away (more on that in another blog post, some day).
- AR glasses will fail; AR masks will be the next key step.
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As a minimalist generalist, I am always researching industries and the shifts they have. Would love to help your business stay strong for the next 10 years.
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