Last year the Lenovo Phab 2 was launched, and while Lenovo launching a new phone wouldn’t have raised too many eyebrows, what made the Phab 2 different is that it is the world’s first Project Tango smartphone. For those unfamiliar, Project Tango is basically Google’s take on augmented reality (AR) technology, and unfortunately it looks like that particular project is coming to an end.
In a tweet by the Project Tango Twitter account (via ArsTechnica), Google has announced that Project Tango will be shutting down on the 1st of March, 2018. “We’re turning down support for Tango on March 1, 2018. Thank you to our incredible community of developers who made such progress with Tango over the last three years.”
We’re turning down support for Tango on March 1, 2018. Thank you to our incredible community of developers who made such progress with Tango over the last three years. We look forward to continuing the journey with you on ARCore. https://t.co/aYiSUkgyie
— Tango (@projecttango) December 15, 2017
However this does not mean that Google isn’t pursuing AR tech anymore. Instead it’s more like Project Tango represents Google’s first attempt at AR, and now that they’re moving on to their next project, which is ARCore, which apparently will be more accessible compared to Tango and is expected to find its way onto phones made by the likes of Samsung, LG, Huawei, ASUS, and more.
So far Google has been testing the waters with ARCore through the release of AR Stickers, which is a mode for the Pixel’s cameras that allow users to introduce characters into your camera scenes that can match lighting to look like they’re really there, which you check out for yourself in the video above.
Filed in . Read more about Augmented Reality (AR), Google and Project Tango.