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Samsung adopts Google’s ARCore platform, coming to Galaxy Note 8, S8+, future devices

At its Developer Conference today, Samsung revealed a partnership with Google to bring ARCore to its lineup of Galaxy devices. The SDK launched with support on the Galaxy S8 in August, but today marks a formal announcement and commitment to Google’s augmented reality platform.

The Galaxy S8, along with the Google Pixel, were the first devices to officially support ARCore during the preview period. That will soon extend to the Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy Note 8, as Google VR and AR head Clay Bavor announced at the 2017 Samsung Developer Conference.

Besides these devices in the short-term, Samsung is more broadly committing to (via The Verge) ARCore support for future devices.

Building upon Samsung’s heritage of creating pioneering technology that delivers incredible experiences to unlock new realities such as VR, the company is committed to continuing to advance technologies in AR. Through a partnership with Google, developers will be able to use the ARCore SDK to bring AR to millions of Samsung consumers on the Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy Note8. This strategic partnership with Google offers new business opportunities for developers, and a new platform for creating immersive new experiences for consumers.

Samsung’s pledge to Google’s version of AR is a positive given Samsung’s tendency to create its own alternatives. While Samsung devices do support Daydream VR, there is also Gear VR with Facebook’s Oculus. A competing AR standard and app store could have required developers to target two different platforms on Android, and possibly harmed the adoption of this up-and-coming technology.

Meanwhile, for Google, this partnership is remarkably beneficial as they try to push mobile AR and compete with Apple’s ARKit. ARCore builds off Tango and intends to bring AR to Android without the need for special hardware. Currently in preview, Google is targeting ARCore support on 100 million devices by the time that period ends.


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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com