40 Best Augmented Reality iPhone Apps
Augmented reality is one of the most exciting technologies around. If you have watched some of those modern Hollywood movies, you have probably seen how our world would look like 20-30 years from now. Who knows when augmented applications become mainstream but they are already making their way to the iPhone platform. Augmented reality is the future but thanks to these augmented reality apps for iPhone, you can experience the future today:

Golfscape GPS Rangefinder: an augmented reality range finder for Golf lovers. It covers 35K+ courses. It displays the distance from front, center, and back of green.

New York Nearest Places: lets you explore New York like never before. And you have seen nothing yet. You can get the Chicago version if that’s where you live.

DanKam for iPhone: an augmented reality application for those who are suffering from color-blindness. It is an experimental application at this point, but it could have huge potential.

SpyGlass: turns your iPhone into a spyglass. Shows you a compass, GPS info, and much more on the go. Very useful for outdoors.

Theodolite: a cool little app that acts as your compass, GPS, map, and two-axis inclinometer. Great for hiking and active sports in general.

Panoramascope: this cool app gives you information about your surroundings (mountains, their names, and …). Great for those who are into outdoors, camping, and beyond.

AR Compass: great app for travel, camping, and outdoor activities. Now this is what one could call a truly modern compass.

Robotvision: an augmented reality application for iPhone that lets you explore your surroundings more effectively.

Cyclopedia: adds Wikipedia information to your reality. When you move your iPhone around, the app will automatically dig up information and display it on your screen.

Layar Reality Browser: a free application that displays digital information on the top of what you see through your camera. The app has a lot of potential, and a lot of you wrote to me to include it in this list. I still believe it has some issues that need to be resolved but it’s free. So try it!

Localscope: gives you a whole new way to explore your local area and what’s all around you. It takes advantage of data from multiple search engines and geo social networks to help you get more done in your local area.

Peaks: great application for those into climbing mountains. Or maybe you are just interested in geography. Shows you information on mountains right on your phone. Top notch app.

Star Chart: gives you your very own virtual star chart on your iPhone. Just point your iPhone to the sky and this app will tell you what you are looking at.

SnapShop Showroom: a wonderful AR application that makes buying furniture or redecorating a room or house much more convenient.

Augmented Car Finder: a fun car finder that takes advantage of augmented reality technology to show you where you have parked your car. It’s not perfect but one of the better ones on the market.

Pocket Universe: a great astronomy app for iPhone that lets you discover stars and planets in the sky without even needing a book. Just point your iPhone to the sky, and you are all set.

Wikitude: another cool augmented iPhone application that helps you explore your surroundings effectively on your phone. POIs are displayed on your screen, and you can find what you are looking for on your phone like never before. It’s free too.

buUuk: great free augmented reality app if you are planning to go to Australia, New Zealand, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, or maybe Dubai, buUuk is the app you need. Uses your GPS to find locations all around you.

London Tube: if you happen to live in London and are looking for an app to help you get around your city more effectively, London Tube comes in handy.

Travel Guide: a travel guide on steroids. Not only helps you get around more conveniently in a foreign city, it takes advantage of AR technology to help you get to your POI faster.

Heads Up Navigator: GPS meets augmented reality. This app uses your camera and augmented reality technology to show you what’s all around you.

SunSeeker: SunSeeker is one cool iPhone app that shows you everything you need about the sun, its path in the sky, and other interesting information about the sun.

Dishpointer: it shows you how the satellites are lined up in the sky. No matter what’s in your way, this app will reveal all.

AR Basketball: turns your reality into a mini basketball court. All you need to play basketball is a piece of paper and your iPhone. This game’s augmented reality feature takes care of the rest.

Sky Siege: a fun augmented reality game for iPhone that is quite addictive and provides you with a unique 3D gaming experience on your device.

AR Invaders: want to fight aliens in your backyard? That’s what this application offers. It has multiple levels of difficulty and can be played in 360 degree mode standing up.

FirePower: a very interested augmented reality game for iPhone that lets you shoot at cars on your phone. Great for stress relief.

Nearest Wiki: an interesting augmented reality app for iPhone that gives you more information about the places you are looking at by putting a layer of information on the top of your view on iPhone.

Spot Crime: a powerful augmented reality application that shows you what crimes have happened around you recently.

Nulaz AR Premium: a fun app that gives you position of people and places around you on top of reality. Great tool to find more information about your surroundings.

See Breeze 3D: a 3D augmented reality application that shows you wind and weather conditions in your area.

AR Soccer: as suggested by a few of our readers, this is soccer meets augmented reality. Gives you a virtual ball to play with at all times.

iVision – Iron Man HUD for iPhone: an AR application for iPhone that adds a Heads Up Display (HUD) on your screen. Similar in a sense to what you have seen in Iron Man.

myNav: another useful AR app that helps you find your way back to your vehicle. Just park your car, tag your location, and you are all set.

Aure: an interesting application that accepts your feedback on things you decide to interact with on your iPhone’s screen. You can also see what others have decided to share with the world.

Satellite Augmented Reality: has a database of over 360 geosynchronous satellites and will display the ones that are visible in your sky view.

ARDefender: into playing games much? This game blends your game with your reality, making your experience with it more fun. Game play is pretty decent too.

Quick Writer: Quick Writer lets you type on your iPhone and see what’s in front of you. Pasting information from this app to others is straight forward.

İompass360°: an augmented reality compass that displays geographic directions around you right on your iPhone (over your reality). It’s simply a compass on steroids.

SketchWiz: turns your camera into a sketcher. Changes the way you see your world and can be used to create some awesome artwork.
So what’s your favorite augmented reality app for iPhone?
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I’m missing out on Layar…. any specific reason why you left this one out?
November 30th, 2009 at 1:17 am -
Yes. The app was unstable when we tried it. But could be included with the next update or so.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:00 am -
Have you tried junaio (www.junaio.com)? It’s our online and mobile augmented reality platform with social capabilities. You can place cool 3D content in your pictures, geo-tag links/webpages in the world. There is a live-view feature that allows you to search for anything and is powered by Google.
December 9th, 2009 at 5:00 pm -
It would be nice if you mention Star Walk: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=295430577&mt=8
December 9th, 2009 at 9:13 pm -
I love augmented reality apps – my new favorite one to use is Holiday Cam – very fun and festive one which mixes augmented reality techniques and holiday greeting cards! I hope you Enjoy it as much as i do — http://bit.ly/8OZmiA
December 12th, 2009 at 10:35 am -
[...] in December, it seems clear that this will be one of the next big things. (Or see on iPhoneNess here for a list of augmented reality iPhone apps). However, current handling by holding your smartphone [...]
April 4th, 2010 at 1:02 pm -
Hi,
I’m the author of an iPhone AR application called ‘Calq’ (http://www.calq.me – currently in review stage on App Store).
It is basically a search engine mashup that aggregates geocoded searches from:
- Bing
- Google
- Flickr
- Panormaio
- Wikipedia
- Foursquare
- Gowalla
- Qype
- …and present the results in a 3D browsable AR view.
If you’re interested in testing, let me know !
Regards
April 13th, 2010 at 3:20 am -
Calq – augmented reality engine, is both:
- an AR search engine: mashup (search with Google, Bing, Flickr, Foursquare, and more …)
- an embeddable engine reusable for third-party projectsSoon available on iPhone – visit us at http://www.calq.me
April 14th, 2010 at 9:32 pm -
My favourite is sky seige. Tnx for the share
April 28th, 2010 at 9:17 am -
Just this week, we released Unearthed, a free app where you scan paranormal creatures all over the world to help the Agency solve a mystery. There's tons of features on there (map, creating networks of friends, recent news feeds, etc). Check it out and drop us some feedback!
June 26th, 2010 at 12:10 am -
I had Layar for a while, and was not too impressed with the UI.
It seemed to clunky, and not as polished as it could be.July 8th, 2010 at 9:12 am -
what about ARSoccer? you can kick a soccer ball with your feet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4p7-4fBwPw
August 5th, 2010 at 9:58 am -
Did you even look at the apps? AR Soccer is already there.
September 16th, 2010 at 12:38 pm -
Thanks for the list. I am checking out some of the apps to see what they are like.
October 19th, 2010 at 6:02 am -
what do you think about spectrek?
November 5th, 2010 at 1:46 am -
look this http://www.airraidgame.com/
November 5th, 2010 at 4:09 pm -
Colorblind Vision – experience what it's like to be colorblind in realtime http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/colorblind-vision/…
December 19th, 2010 at 11:02 am -
AR Waypoints – view waypoints from KML and GPX files in augmented reality http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ar-waypoints/id408…
December 21st, 2010 at 9:34 am -
photo frame – put your face on various background and take photo. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cool-faces-app/id4…
December 21st, 2010 at 10:00 am -
love it. should have a few good new concepts out in the public domain in early 2011.. looking forward to hearing your comments on them then! smallestturtle.com
December 30th, 2010 at 1:32 am -
Great post. Wondering what your take is on the different apps when you cluster it more… xmpl: Info browsing Layar, Junaio, Wikitude. AR navigation: Compass 360, Wikitude drive etc. AR games, AR social etc. etc.
cheers!
January 23rd, 2011 at 10:49 am -
I see. You are suggesting better organization. Great idea!
January 23rd, 2011 at 3:08 pm -
Star Wars: Falcon Gunner. Any Star Wars nerd's dream come true
February 10th, 2011 at 12:39 pm -
Great overview, thanks. Also check out the new Where To? with Augmented Reality: http://www.futuretap.com/blog/whereto-3d/
February 25th, 2011 at 4:39 am -
Can anyone point me out for where I can find the source code examples for AR? My AR application is very simple. Not doing anything fency. I have few Map Points with Latitude, Longitude, title, subtitle, and image. I want to display them on AR View such that they don't overlap with each other when couple of MapPoints are close together. I am struggeling with framing a frame with different starting and ending points but not got around so far. Can you thinkg something that can be useful for me in this regards?
February 25th, 2011 at 5:54 am -
Does something like this help: http://cmgresearch.blogspot.com/2010/10/augmented…
February 25th, 2011 at 9:04 am -
I like augmented reality but eventually it will go too far. There needs to be a balance. People like the extra functionality but it's nice to explore things on your own.
March 6th, 2011 at 4:32 pm -
Agree. But other, more advanced augmentation technologies are on their way. The sky\’s the limit. I am not sure we won\’t push it too far. Exciting nevertheless.
March 6th, 2011 at 6:56 pm -
Hi, you may be interested to see a french AR app about culture, museums and art : CultureClic: http://www.cultureclic.fr/en
March 12th, 2011 at 5:37 pm -
You forgot AirRaid, the only game which really gives meaning to augmented reality gaming.
March 13th, 2011 at 4:12 am -
In my opinion, it hasn't gone far enough. I am eager to get to the point where everyone had contact lenses with built-in heads up displayes, where we can program our boss to look like a Nazgul, the sky to be red, and our co-workers to look like Sesame Street muppets. I'm sure that before the contact lens tech is in place, everyone will be wearing stereo eyeglass displays (already on the market), connected to the phones (via bluetooth eventually.) Imagine the games that will be possible when you and the other players have systems which recognize that a certain hand gesture from you shoots lightning from your hand to the target. Or when you walk around your own yard, but what you see and hear are consistent with the battleground of your favorite FPS game? I'm ready, bring it on before I'm too old to enjoy it!
March 29th, 2011 at 4:59 pm -
I am a graduate student in Media Psychology and working on my dissertation. I am in search of a person/company that can help me (actually, I can't really help much because I am not a designer or software writer!) create a smartphone application that uses augmented reality to display information. I understand that creating software is not inexpensive therefore, I am hoping to find some funding for this endeavor and/or someone who might be interested exploring this idea while at the same time, assisting a student. ANY suggestions and information will be GREATLY appreciated! Thank You
May 6th, 2011 at 10:17 am -
Duck Hunt AR revival with augmented reality http://itunes.apple.com/app/duck-hunt-ar/id423234…
[youtube e-UFfDDmh8U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-UFfDDmh8U youtube]
May 12th, 2011 at 4:38 pm -
It's our online and mobile augmented reality platform with social capabilities. You can place cool 3D content in your pictures, geo-tag links/webpages in the world. There is a live-view feature that allows you to search for anything and is powered by Google. Thailand Hotels
May 16th, 2011 at 6:59 am -
And what about AR-Terminator and AR-Matrix?
[youtube GbEV_BH3AFE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbEV_BH3AFE youtube]
May 26th, 2011 at 2:00 am -
If new apps are added or we have missed them, we will add with the next update.
May 26th, 2011 at 3:27 am -
Just this week, we released Unearthed, a free app where you scan paranormal creatures all over the world to help the Agency solve a mystery. There's tons of features on there (map, creating networks of friends, recent news feeds, etc). Check it out and drop us some feedback!
June 20th, 2011 at 12:10 am -
AR apps are coming thick and fast now, but I particularly like Virtual Tags which combines AR and geotagging with social media. Version 2 went live in the app store yesterday too. The app can be seen in action at http://www.virtualtags.net
The new features are covered in their press release here – http://www.prlog.org/11562439-virtual-tags-introd…
June 29th, 2011 at 7:51 am -
DanKam for iphone looks good. i'm going to download it.
July 5th, 2011 at 4:37 am -
A lot of AR apps out there. My favorite is uDecore, http://www.udecore.com perfect when you want to buy furniture or re decorate your house
[youtube nfWHCFa7JxI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWHCFa7JxI youtube]
July 11th, 2011 at 5:07 am -
Turbcast is a great travel app AR
August 6th, 2011 at 9:18 am -
These are great apps, and makes one wonder aobut the possibilties for the future.
August 19th, 2011 at 2:30 pm -
Word Lens is the best Augmented Reality app I've seen to date. It translates the Spanish language to English.
http://questvisual.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs<iframe width="480" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/h2OfQdYrHRs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
August 28th, 2011 at 9:36 am -
One of my favorite AG app is RC Helicopter by Androne .In this app we basically control a helicopter control using iPhone with remote camera using wifi which gives a true experience of augmented reality.
September 7th, 2011 at 11:46 am -
About video playing in AR try Viseo, that plays video using the augmented reality built on image recognition, http://www.viseo-app.com
[youtube 2MyRoirw4cY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MyRoirw4cY youtube]September 14th, 2011 at 3:09 am -
Check out 'Halloween Friends' as well, an app that we have developed for the season. It uses facial identification to turn the people around you into monsters and zombies. Great for a laugh, and a good example of augmented reality!
October 19th, 2011 at 2:17 am -
If you are colorblind, try http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/colorpixel/id46561… –> this is an app that can identify colors using your camera
November 21st, 2011 at 7:34 pm -
November 21st, 2011 at 8:19 pm
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Thanks for sharing this
November 22nd, 2011 at 8:01 am -
We just released a new AR app, MoonWalking, which brings Tranquility Base (site of the first Apollo moon landing) down to Earth to watch history unfold in front of you as an immersive virtual world. http://www.moon-walking.com
January 5th, 2012 at 10:04 am


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