Niantic’s Campfire app will finally let ‘Pokémon Go’ players chat together

Move over Discord, Niantic has its own messaging solution in thoughts for Pokémon Go players: a social AR app known as Campfire. It’ll let you arrange for occasions, uncover new areas and share content material with different players. Think of it like a hyper-local social community constructed solely for AR—it is “the ‘homepage’ of the real-world Metaverse,” as Niantic says (as if that makes issues any clearer). Campfire is already stay in Ingress, the company’s first AR sport, and it will be headed to all of its titles beginning this summer season.

Pokémon Go players have sometimes relied on Discord and different platforms to speak with others. Given Nintendo and the Pokémon Company’s squeamishness round social networking, it seemingly would have been tough for Niantic to build social options immediately into the sport. Ultimately, it makes extra sense to launch a separate app that may tie into all the company’s experiences.

On prime of Campfire, Niantic additionally unveiled Lightship VPS (digital positioning system), a brand new platform that will let builders extra precisely study the position and orientation of customers. They’ll additionally be capable of anchor AR content material in place with “centimeter-level” precision, in keeping with Niantic. That’ll assist devs produce higher localization and persistence, that are a very powerful elements in any AR expertise. To energy VPS, the company has produced 3D maps in over 30,000 areas throughout six cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, London and Tokyo), primarily based on brief video contributions from players.