Google Search Shows Animals in Augmented Reality

If you think Google Search is good, it is even better now. Google has recently added AR (Augmented Reality) in their search results for animals on mobile. When you search for an animal, you can “summon” it into your environment in AR.

Here are examples of search results with this feature.

How to

  • First, go to Google.com on your mobile.
  • Search for animals like dog, wolf, horse, tiger, lion or panda (note that not all search results for animals has this AR feature).
  • Scroll down (if needed) to a box that says “Meet a life-sized your searched animal up close”
  • Once you press on it, you will see the animal in a white background.
  • For iOS, you can select AR to see the animal in your environment. For Android, you can select “View in your space” and follow the instruction. The animal will appear before you (in the mobile screen, I meant).

It works on iOS and some Android phones. For Android phones, ARCore must be supported. For some users, you might encounter issues. My best guess is that your Google.com is not set to English.

Here is a video to demo how the AR works. Note that I am using screen capture to video the process. You can only take picture with the AR feature.

I really like this feature. Imagine you can call out an animal and watch it safely in front of you instead of browsing through pictures or videos.

From my understanding, this feature might be used for products in the future. I can imagine online shops with such feature. Instead of model modeling the products on the website, you can render it on your environment and see if they really fit you.

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Good job, Google!

BTW, I do have one complain and some suggestions.

  • Please improve the hair of the lion. It is quite unbearable to watch it.
  • Please add in more animals
  • Please add video function to capture the animals.
  • Please add a Ferrari. I want to have a picture with the car.

Here are some of the animals that can work with this AR feature.

  • Tiger
  • Dog
  • Pug
  • Panda
  • Eagle
  • Horse
  • Rottweiler
  • Turtle
  • Octopus
  • Shark
  • Lion
  • Cat
  • Pony
  • Snake
  • Ball Python
  • Bear
  • Alligator
  • Raccoon
  • Penguin

Let me know if you have found other animals that can work. Have fun!