Niantic could expand into augmented reality space with newly teased AR glasses

Niantic is a popular name when it comes to augmented reality (AR). The company started off with Ingress and soon after took the world by storm by launching Pokémon GO, bringing the popular franchise to the mobile platform with an AR twist. In a recent tweet, John Hanke, CEO at Niantic has teased a pair of Niantic branded glasses, which could be the company’s first-ever augmented reality wearable device.

There’s no substantial information shared about the teased glasses, but the CEO mentions in his tweet, “Exciting to see the progress we’re making to enable new kinds of devices that leverage our platform.” Considering the Niantic branding on the glasses, these could go on to be a first-party product rather than a collaboration. If you look closely, these look a lot like a pair of smart glasses that only leverages in-built audio, and possibly a camera rather than a full-fledged AR experience with a display. The reference to the word “platform” is likely towards the Niantic Real World Platform.

Exciting to see the progress we’re making to enable new kinds of devices that leverage our platform… pic.twitter.com/yYglk4q89G

— John Hanke (@johnhanke) March 29, 2021

Earlier this month, Microsoft had showcased its new Mesh mixed reality platform. Part of the announcement included a short demo of Pokémon Go running on the HoloLens 2 headset. Microsoft in association with Niantic created this concept version of Pokémon GO where you could go out into the wild and hunt for Pokémon, feed them berries, access different parts of the game, and more. Notably, Niantic did mention that there is no such app that is ready for consumers to try just yet, but the proof-of-concept does pave the way for a mixed-reality-based version of the game in the future. “We’ve only scratched the surface. We know the years ahead to be filled with important achievements which will serve as waypoints in AR’s journey to become a life-changing computing platform” said Hanke during the demo.

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