It begins with a new app and developers kit.

Craig Federighi Presenting ARKit at WWDC

Apple and Augmented Reality

In June, Apple released ARKit along with iOS 11 at WWDC. This was Apple’s first investment into augmented reality technology and gave developers tools to build AR based apps. What was very surprising to me was Apple provided tools to build AR apps but didn’t release any of their own. You can make a case that they put developers first. However I believe it’s Apple being more cautious in entering the AR market. Augmented reality is new to consumers but there is unlimited potential. Now it’s unclear what Apple’s next move is but my best guess is that in iOS 12 they’ll make a full investment in augmented reality by using their own native apps. Because if it’s anyone to successfully pull it off, it’s Apple.

I’m very interested in the AR space. Thinking like a Product Designer at Apple, I wanted to build a concept that provides developers the opportunity to showcase their AR apps to consumers at ease while also integrating Apple’s own native apps. I also thought Siri and AR is a perfect complement so here’s what I came up with:

Concept of Lens App & LensKit

Lens is the app that would ship with iOS 12. It will be the foundation and platform for Apple’s native apps and third-party apps that use augmented reality. Lens is an amazing platform for developers to showcase their AR based apps without users needing to download the full app.

SiriKit and ARKit are official developer tools made by Apple

LensKit is the developer tool that is used to build on the Lens app. LensKit will help developers create or merge an existing app into the Lens app. Developers will have full control over what features will be available using the Lens app. To take full advantage of the Lens, developers will need to work with SiriKit and ARkit.

Lens App

The app will be preloaded with the newest iOS and will be available in the home screen.