Niantic Labs, creator of Ingress, to be spun off as an independent company

As the changes from Google’s Alphabet restructure continue to emerge, it today was revealed that Niantic Labs, the team behind popular Ingress augmented reality game, will be spun off as its own independent company. In addition to creating Ingress, Niantic Labs also created Field Trip, which will also stick around when the company breaks off from Google.

In a post on Google+, Niantic Labs announced that it will be breaking off as its own company, but will still be somewhat supported by Google. Most support the company claims, however, will come from “amazing new partners.” Specific details are sparse at this point, but Niantic Labs notes that more details will be revealed over the coming weeks.

Any usage information from both Field Trip and Ingress will transfer to Niantic Labs on August 12th, although users can opt-out and choose to have all of their data deleted on September 11th by visiting this webpage.

Important Account Information: Niantic Labs is becoming an independent company. We’ll be taking our unique blend of exploration and fun to even bigger audiences with some amazing new partners joining Google as collaborators and backers. Niantic will be building on the success of +Ingress, which has been downloaded more than 12M times, has attracted more than 250,000 people to live events around the world, and has inspired users to collectively walk the distance from the earth to the sun while playing, exploring and discovering.

Stay tuned at www.NianticLabs.com and our social channels for more information.

The exact reasoning for Niantic Labs breaking off from Google and Alphabet is unclear at this point, although it likely stemmed from its services not really fitting into any specific part of Google’s new plans and revenue goals.