Imagine you’re walking through the bustling streets of a city, exploring it with the help of a virtual tour guide. That virtual guide pops up on your smartphone and overlays historical facts and interesting visuals onto your real-world scene! That’s the power of Augmented Reality (AR) — a technology that seamlessly blends the virtual with the real.

AR has touched unimaginable heights, with the market expected to reach a staggering $70 billion by the end of the year. Since the AR market is evolving at a breakneck pace with already 1.4 billion active users globally, the demand for AR App development is skyrocketing, too, opening up a new world of opportunities for aspiring developers, business owners, and online shoppers!

How AR Apps Work? A Quick Rundown 

Augmented reality apps overlay digital content such as images, videos, or 3D models onto real-world scenarios captured by a device’s camera. These apps are backed by computer vision and tracking technologies that help them recognize and understand the physical world and accurately place the virtual elements.

The most popular example of AR, which most of us have interacted with, is probably Snapchat. Its filters include everything AR – from flower crowns to retro pictures, beautifying filters, to bitmoji filters.

Moreover, Snapchat has an AR studio called “Snap AR,” which lets you create AR lenses and use them in the app. Until now, more than 2.5 million lenses have been created with them, and the number is growing constantly!

How Augmented Reality Is Revolutionizing Other Industries? 

Before diving into AR’s technical aspects, let’s see how this breakthrough technology has revolutionized various industries.

  • The gaming industry is by far the most popular and biggest AR user. The AR-powered app “Pokemon Go” took the world by storm, generating a jaw-dropping $894 million in revenue in 2022. AR lets you immerse yourself in a virtual world while interacting with a physical environment, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.
  • Moreover, AR can make your audience do the action, see and shop! The furniture giant IKEA is making the most out of AR technology with its “IKEA Place” App that allows you to virtually place furniture in your home or office, suggest the perfect piece and show how it would look in real before actually buying it.
  • AR grab attention and create brand awareness. One of the frontrunners in the beauty industry, Sephora, uses facial recognition technology to enable “Try before Buy” so customers can buy the ideal products.

While AR development has become a hot topic in tech world, with countless apps across other industries like education, healthcare, sports, real estate and Manufacturing, it’s no wonder that using AR apps brings many benefits.

Benefits of AR

How Much Does It Cost To Develop An AR App?  

Building an augmented reality (AR) app for Android and iOS can be exciting and rewarding. However, there are a lot of factors to consider, such as the type of AR app, price, features to include, and development tools.

Here’s a rough estimation of the development costs for different types of AR apps, along with their key features:

cost to develop ar app

Besides pricing, the are various other factors that should be considered as well, such as

  • Type of AR technology
  • Development timeline
  • Human resources
  • Location
  • Frameworks and SDKs
  • Third-party integration
  • Database services

Carefully consider your needs and budget before the development starts.

Now let’s discuss the timeline and steps in developing an Augmented reality app.

How To Develop an Augmented Reality App for Android and iOS?

Building a top-notch AR app is somehow arduous. However, taking a step-wise approach will help you ace your goal. Consider the following steps for developing your augmented reality app. Let’s see all steps one by one.

Step 01 — Do Some Market Research 

Market research will let you know what types of AR apps are trending. Also, you can download and check related apps available on the Google Play store and Apple Store. Their features, UI/UX, design, speed, feedback, rating, etc, will tell you much about them. Thus, deciding what features and functionality in the App will offer the best user experience will be easier.

Step 02 — Set Your Requirements for the App 

Make a list of everything you need in your App.

For instance, if you’re a technopreneur, you probably want to create a unique app thats fill the market gap, and is build on the latest technology. Or if you’re a business owner, you want an AR-powered app that boosts your sales and diversifies your business, like Sephora and Warby Parker.

Set your App’s requirements straight — the features you want to include to the type of mobile App, choice of platform tools, and technology you want to leverage in your App – decide everything you wish to offer.

Also, At this stage, you can contact AR experts, who can understand and fulfill your requirements as suggested. Make sure you hire a professional AR app development company!

Step 03 — Create a Development Strategy 

Here comes one of the crucial steps of AR App development.

Start working on it strategically since you’ve decided what to include in the App. AR App works on specific frameworks and SDKs. However, most of them aren’t free and open-source. You need to pay for them. So choose your tech stack carefully.

Keep in mind the size of your app and target audience. Moreover, the App’s core feature, scalability, and, of course, the estimated budget will play a major role in deciding the tech stack.

techstack for ar app development

Step 04 — Test Your App 

Another crucial step in AR app development.

Successful App testing ensures the best user experience that eventually leads to the App’s overall success. Make sure to perform all types of testing: Functional, instrumental, and unit.

Functional testing will ensure that App’s features and interactions are working properly. Testers would tap buttons, fill out the forms, and try different scenarios to see if the App behaves as expected.

Instrumental testing of the App will let you spot and fix any hidden issues or bottlenecks that could affect the App’s performance.

Unit testing will help you maintain the quality and reliability of the codebase. Developers write small tests to check their code’s parts or units.

Step 05 — Launch the App 

Once done with all types of App testing, Your Augmented reality app is ready to launch!

You can launch it on any platform. However, remember that submitting your App to Appstore will take a few days, depending on the App’s quality. On the contrary, the Google Play store will launch your App within a few hours of submission.

Ready to Build the Next-big AR App?

Turn your Ideas into Immersive Augmented Reality with RevolveAI!
The future is here, and we’re ready to shape it ! Let RevolveAI develop the next-gen AR app for you that sets new standards in the industry!

Let’s connect and make it happen!

Augmented Reality Apps: Adding Innovation to the Future

Augmented reality apps are set to feed a hefty dose of innovation into the future, bringing a whole new level of excitement and possibilities. Imagine visiting a museum and having artifacts come to life, telling their stories through interactive AR exhibits.

AR apps will make education more interactive for students. Business owners and employees will witness amazing team collaborations despite being miles apart within augmented environments. AR gaming is already blurring the lines between real and virtual worlds.

However, these are just a few possibilities. With technology advancing and AR apps developing, we’re going to see more and more immersive and innovative apps!