Blog

Jan 23, 2024

Future of AR/VR in App Development Appears Bright

Agora is a leading Real-Time Engagement Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider. It provides the developers with simple, flexible, and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to embed

Agora is a leading Real-Time Engagement Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider. It provides the developers with simple, flexible, and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to embed real-time voice, video, interactive live-streaming, chat, whiteboard, and artificial intelligence capabilities into their applications. In an interaction with Nitisha, Ranga Jagannath, Senior Director, Agora discussed the latest trends, challenges, and innovations in AR/VR industry.

According to a recent estimate by Goldman Sachs, AR and VR are expected to grow into a $95 billion market by 2025. The strongest demand for the technologies currently comes from industries in the creative economy—specifically, gaming, live events, video entertainment and retail.

Some trends that we have seen this year are:

Augmented reality has been used to solve numerous business challenges across a variety of sectors like retail and e-commerce, gaming, and even healthcare. Businesses now see it as a way to offer more than there is in their kitty, to help retain as well as satisfy customers.

Agora’s solutions give an enterprise the building blocks to create branded virtual worlds at any scale. This is done with a diverse toolset that works reliably across the globe and across any industry vertical such as gaming, enterprise, collaboration, education, and many more.

Recent technological advancements in the field of AR and VR have revealed new enterprise use-cases, but consumers don’t yet seem convinced to use the technology beyond entertainment. A report by Gartner states that “it will take 5 to 10 years before these technologies reach a mature level. Businesses already experiment with VR, but hesitate to fully commit. On the other hand, customers are fascinated by the new entertainment possibilities, but do not want to invest in head-mounted displays (HMDs) as long as the offering is so small.”

Hence, it will not be wrong to say that the biggest barrier to wide adoption of immersive technologies is the lack of good user experience design. 3D interface design is difficult and expensive, and there are very few people with the necessary design skills to overcome these issues. It is, therefore, difficult to combine world-class components, an appealing human experience, and new habits into a single technology. Additionally, in their current form, AR/VR wearable headsets don’t have the right form factor to succeed in the market. Headsets are not designed to deliver fully immersive experiences, given their limited field of view, poor display quality and lacking acoustics, among other issues. Some of these challenges are a natural part of product design. People are not yet ready to be seen wearing these types of wearables in public. Aside from societal stigmas, the bulkiness and function of these devices limit when, where, and in what context they can be utilized.

AR generates business value through two primary avenues: one, by integrating directly into the products, and two, by enhancing overall performance throughout the value chain. This improvement spans various aspects, including product development, manufacturing, marketing, service, and other critical areas within the business.

Amidst the pandemic, every business and sector had to make the shift to online models to enable business continuity and find newer ways to increase customer experience. With everything becoming mobile and virtual, customer expectations also began to evolve. In this scenario, live streaming, broadcasting, video chat and beyond were pivotal in bringing new services and communication capabilities to the masses any time, through any device.

India is also witnessing a strong growth in adoption of digital technologies like AI, cloud, AR, VR and analytics. The most common applications of AR and VR in enterprises may include providing remote real-time support to clients and training employees. Virtual and Augmented Reality have the potential to change the future. This modern technology has already made enormous strides, from games to marketing and social networks, but also in industry and science. Furthermore, with startups and technology behemoths taking the lead, the future of Augmented and Virtual reality in online and mobile app development appears bright.

Agora’s real-time engagement platform is a great solution to fuse the physical and virtual worlds.

For example, VIVE Sync uses Agora to power real-time collaboration within the virtual environment. The VIVE team chose to partner with Agora based on the overall performance and versatility of the platform. The combination of VIVE Sync and the Agora Video SDK is the perfect hybrid collaboration tool, connecting both the virtual and physical worlds.

By integrating Agora’s Video SDK, VIVE Sync enables seamless remote collaboration between HTC VIVE users. Agora’s technology allows VR users to connect remotely to their computer without leaving the VR environment, so they can access and present files and applications as if they were sitting directly in front of the machine.

By considering the needs and preferences of a diverse range of users, we can create virtual experiences that are accessible, inclusive, and appealing to a broad audience. This, in turn, will drive the adoption of 3D virtual spaces, as more users will be exposed to the benefits of more immersive and interactive virtual environments, even from the comfort of familiar 2D interfaces.

Agora’s platform-agnostic solutions have been designed to work seamlessly across a broad spectrum of device types. It is the essential RTE (real-time engagement) platform to enhance virtual communication and collaboration. Whether you are working on a web or native application or building a virtual world with a 3D engine like Unity or Unreal, Agora can help you connect with your audience in real-time across devices.

Agora also offers extensions to enhance the experience for all users. For example, the 3D spatial audio extension helps create a sense of presence in relative virtual space, regardless of their device and interface. AI Noise Suppression can likewise improve the quality of online interactions by making it easier for users to communicate effectively, even in noisy or distracting environments. Altogether, Agora’s complete solution stack is the ideal infrastructure to build the internet of tomorrow, today.