Facebook’s AR Studio opens to all developers
Facebook has opened its AR Studio tool so any interested developer can now build augmented reality experiences.
AR Studio was first announced back in April at Facebook’s F8 developer conference. The tool enables developers to build experiences for Facebook Camera.
Facebook is attempting to use third-party developers to help close the augmented reality gap with rival Snapchat. AR Studio contains support for “World Effects” which are Facebook’s version of Snapchat’s own “World Lenses” — a feature that augments the environment rather than just people.
Here are a few examples of Snapchat’s AR models:
In the announcement, Google wrote:
"In the second half of 2018, Play will require that new apps and app updates target a recent Android API level. This will be required for new apps in August 2018, and for updates to existing apps in November 2018. This is to ensure apps are built on the latest APIs optimized for security and performance.
In August 2019, Play will require that new apps and app updates with native libraries provide 64-bit versions in addition to their 32-bit versions."
Additionally, in early 2018, Play will start adding a small amount of security metadata on top of each APK to further verify app authenticity. You do not need to take any action for this change.
The decision has been initiated to offer higher security and performance among Android apps. Also it is expected to lead to more performant apps in the future. Google’s Android Developers Blog stated: “For apps that use native libraries, 64-bit code typically offers significantly better performance, with additional registers and new instructions.”
Additionally, the company said that it will very soon start appending security metadata to verify that authorised apps were indeed served via its Play Store.