Augmented Reality in 2020-innovations and marketing.

Insight into the journey of Augmented Reality in 2020

2020 is coming to end, let us see why the future of Augmented Reality in 2021 will be promising. Augmented Reality is one of the coolest technologies with immense use cases in different industries. Augmented Reality is successfully ruling in 2020 by invading in topmost sectors. Well, 2021 is about to come and AR has a lot on its plate. Let us go through the journey of Augmented Reality in 2020 and see what is in store for 2021. If you are new, let us start with the introduction else you can jump to the next heading:

What is Augmented Reality?

AR is one of the biggest technological innovations of this era with immense potential to disrupt industries. Augmented Reality is an interactive technology that helps to place computer-generated 3D objects, models, animations in the real environment. The objects that are placed in the real-world are enhanced by using computer-generated information. With the integration of AR in smartphones, technology is going to grow bigger and bigger. Though Augmented Reality is more than a decade old, with the launch of Pokémon Go the technology became a buzzing word. The game became an inescapable sensation where that zombie could pop up literally anywhere on your way. This game gave huge exposure to this immersive technology.

But till three years back, in the name of the application of AR people mostly knew about Gaming and mask creation. In, the last three years the technology completely disrupted the market and created a unique niche in major sectors. Use cases of AR have become limitless. We know a lot and a lot is yet to be explored. Augmented Reality has enhanced training and education. It is playing a prominent role in retail and marketing and has many more uses in different industries.

Let us go through the journey Of Augmented Reality in 2020:

2020 is for sure a growth year of technologies. We saw a huge surge in AR and VR technologies. Biggies tech giants have stepped into a partnership with developers and launch new projects. Let us see some of the important change in the AR trend in 2020:

• Commercial support: Big tech giants are playing a huge role in supporting this interactive technology. Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook have launched new Software Development Kits (SDK) in 2020. These companies are making some serious commitments to enhancing the uses of Augmented Reality. AR core, Apple’s AR Kit. Spark AR, Hololens have modified uses of Augmented Reality.
• AR supporting smartphones: The number of Augmented Reality supporting smartphones has spiked in 2020. As per a survey “ the mobile Augmented reality market is projected to grow from USD 7.6 billion in 2020 to USD 29.5 billion by 2025. It is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 31.1% from 2020 to 2025. In 2021, there will be an estimated 1.96 billion mobile AR users worldwide, which will reach 2.4 billion by 2023. 
• ARKit 3.0 and ARKit 4.0: Apple introduced a ground-breaking Augmented Reality platform ARKit 3.0 in 2020 for all iOS users. AR kit has increased the usability of Augmented Reality. It provides interactive experiences to users. Users can see moving body parts via ARkit 3.0. The kit along with Reality Kit and Reality composer will make the entire process of development easier. Really kit is a framework designed to easily merge the artificial object into a real environment. The reality composer includes a large number of virtual objects.
• Try-before-you-buy: Augmented Reality in e-commerce and shopping reached a whole new level. AR provides the flexibility to try dresses, jewelry, cosmetics,  furniture, shoes before purchasing. This has major benefits in industries. Most of the time shoppers are not sure of buying products due to confusion in how it will actually look on them, AR has brought a robust solution to eliminate this confusion. You can try dresses without standing in a long queue with the help of a virtual fitting room. Customers get to place the furniture at home and see how it matches the ambiance before actually filling it. “At least 100 million users were expected to utilize AR enables shopping technologies by 2020. 
• Indoor navigation:  We have Google maps for outdoor navigation. But what about Indoor navigation? Do you get confused about figuring out ways to reach destinations in malls, airports, and more? Well, now we have Augmented Reality for indoor navigation. It will provide show you your way to the terminal gets with the help of your flat number.
• Microsoft Hololens and Hololens 2: Microsoft refers to hololens as mixed reality. Hololens 2 launched at the end of 2019  is a modified version of Microsoft Hololens. These holograms are used to make the real world more interactive and immersive. Microsoft Hololens is an AR headset that allows you to look around you after adding virtual holograms to it.
• Image source: https://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-hololens-2-four-key-improvements-comfort-fov-holograms-25567353/
• Smart glasses:  We heard about the launch of some cool AR glasses and smartglasses. Augmented Reality smartglasses have the potential to blend the real world with fragments of virtual information. These glasses are the best things for Augmented Reality. These wearables help to implement the filter in our day to day lives. As per the report “Apple is working on smartglasses and Facebook has already confirmed its plans to launch smart glasses in 2021.” We will be having Facebook’s Ray-Ban smartglasses and Amazon Echo frames.
• WebAR: The introduction of webAR has paved new opportunities for businesses. It refers to access to Augmented Reality through a web browser. You can get a quick and interactive experience without installing any application. Though it is in its starting phase so the service is limited to simple animations and videos. In upcoming years we will see webAR completely revolutionizing the marketing sector.

Wrapping up:

The growing use of Augmented Reality in 2020 clearly depicts the promising 2021 for this interactive technology. Here, we have mentioned some cool news, innovations, and use cases of Augmented Reality in 2020. AR uses are limitless. We are yet to explore rest uses.