Is Niantic finally about to let me throw pokeballs in Pokémon Go through this 8wall update?!

I was born in the 90s, which means that I am basically genetically altered to love certain things. Chief among them being the ultimate nostalgia-clickbait known as Pokémon.

I’ve not missed a generation. I’ve not loved one since the 3DS era. They still get my money. It’s complicated childhood trauma, so let’s talk about something more fun.

Pokémon Go! Let me save you a quick search: yes, the game is still alive and I still play daily. But it’s become a FOMO-induced habit more than anything. And with Niantic going through massive layoffs recently, I can’t help but wonder if these are the final years of the game?

But you know what? Niantic is an AR-first company. Sure, their games are fun, but data-harvesting is the name of the true game. And I’ll gladly feed them more data if this update to 8wall means that hand tracking may be coming to Pokémon Go too!



Hold up, hold up, hold up–What’s 8wall?

Glad you asked! Think of it as a web-based platform, which allows developers to build augmented reality experiences for a wide range of applications.

For example, let’s say that you own a jewelry store and would like to allow your customers to try on your beautiful creations without the hassle of them having to visit you on site. Well, through 8wall, you — or rather, the dev you hire — can do that!

But if you watch the trailer above, which Niantic posted to showcase the new feature, you can instantly see how I made the connection to Pokémon Go. Well, as long as you’ve played or you’ve seen someone play, that is. I'm talking about the demo where someone is tossing an aura-sphere-thing around in their hands. 

Now imagine if that were pokeball that you can toss in the game through the already existing AR feature, which almost no one uses. Given how much experience Niantic has, I don’t think that porting something like this over from 8wall — which is still a web-based platform — to Pokémon Go would be that big of a deal.

Still though, even if that never happens, having hand tracking in a platform like this truly unlocks a ton of potential. It also means that hand tracking is becoming both better and easier to do properly.