2035 Best AR Apps for iPad

The iPhone 8 is an augmented reality phone. But guess what? The iPhone in your pocket might very well be, too.

Before the new iPhones were announced, I told some coworkers that I thought ARKit and its apps -- which promise to place virtual things in our real world -- would be a bigger story than the new iPhones. Most disagreed.

Now, the iPhone X is definitely eye-catching. It's exciting. It's not arriving until November, though. Meanwhile, the similar-looking iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are boasting new processors that are optimized for AR.

The iPhone 8 doesn't seem tremendously exciting, except for its speed boost and AR possibilities. You don't even need a new iPhone to use Apple's new ARKit-enabled apps in iOS 11.

I've been tweeting some of my demos since the review of the new iPhones went live. As new apps arrive, like a preview of Ikea's furniture-placement app Ikea Place, I'm getting even more impressed. So are people who see the demo videos. if you're not familiar with AR or don't know what it does, the videos below do a good job of demonstrating it. Here's what AR on a phone can do.

So far, new AR apps already look amazing

ARKit, a toolkit for augmented reality in iOS 11, doesn't need the new iPhones. It works on phones going back to the iPhone 6S. Most of time with AR has been on the new iPhone 8 models, but, in demos we've seen on iPhone 7 Plus phones and other devices, it already looked fantastic.

Stay tuned for further testing now that iOS 11 is here, but you're already probably able to see for yourself. This demo of Sky Guide was captured live using iOS 11 Screen Capture on the iPhone. Some commenters didn't even believe it was a real-time demo.

In fact, Apple's iOS 11 AR looks so good that it drove Google to approach the same idea with ARCore. It overshadowed Google Tango. It suddenly became the best phone AR anyone has seen, effectively.

Back at Apple's developer conference in June, it seemed like a big deal. Now, it seems like the key to Apple's next wave of app development.