This free app lets you snap AR-like photos and videos, and put 3D characters or people into your shots

AR/VR company called 8i has released a smartphone app that allows you to experience AR through your mobile device and turn your pictures into sci-fi-like snaps. The Holo app, free on Google Play and App Store, lets you put animated characters and people into your photos and videos, almost as if they were there for real. Almost.

The app is pretty cool for what it does, but does feel a little stiff at times, even though taking pictures with Spiderman by your side can’t really get dull, ever. Nonetheless, if you take Spidey, for example, and decide to put him into your shot, you are bound to be annoyed by the fact that he does not always respond to the environment, as you move your camera to a different angle. He may hang in the air, lose proportion, or just look too out of place. So, you do need to play with it a little bit and be patient.

The issue was kind of persistent with other characters we tried, such as a poodle dog and a mermaid. There is an in-app store that you can access to download other characters, each of which comes with a specific animation. We see this as a next step to replying with GIF images, as here you can get creative with digital and real-life takes, too.

The store holds a good amount of characters and 8i has promised that it will regularly update its contents with new 3D models, objects and effects.

iOS 11While Holo is a pretty basic version of what AR may bring us in the future, the app is more than fun to play around with, especially when you consider that it’s free. For those of you, who got super-duper excited at ARKit that’s due to kick off in iOS, you can now try it on any iPhone that runs iOS 10, past iPhone 5. As for Android users, you can run the app on Android 5.0 and later versions.


via VentureBeat