Google AR Measure app is now on OnePlus 6 but comes with a lot of bugs

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Augmented reality apps have been growing in number and there's a quiet hope among companies that AR becomes the future of mobile application, and generally the next big thing in technology. The idea of AR is simple - superimpose the virtual onto the real for an interactive experience. We've seen AR apps like Pokemon Go that took the world by storm back in 2016. Companies like Apple and Google have also spent a lot of time providing AR tools for developers to bring out AR apps for a number of different purposes. The Measure app for Android is one such app that uses a phone's camera to measure your real life environment. And Google recently opened the app for a bunch of Android phones.

ARCore is aimed to make AR apps work on Android phones without the need of more expensive and complicated hardware. The Measure app was initially open for Project Tango phones like the Asus Zenfone AR and Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, which came with special sensors like depth sensing and motion sensing to detect the surrounding AR to work well. But Tango depended on some serious hardware, while ARCore is software-based, which means a lot more Android phones make use of it.

The Measure app got an update few days ago that now opens it up to all ARCore supported phones. This includes phones like the Pixel 2, Galaxy S9, LG G7 ThinQ and so on. A list of ARCore-supported phones can be found on Google's official website. Notably, some new phones have also been added recently that are yet to be updated to the list. Among them is the OnePlus 6, which means the phone also supports the Measure app. We downloaded the app to find how well it works on the OnePlus 6 and whether the app is useful for users right now.

The Measure app is around 11MB in size on the Play Store so it will barely weigh anything on the OnePlus 6. Once downloaded, the app quickly give you a runthrough of what you need to do. After that, opening the app directly opens the camera viewfinder. Since it uses the rear camera to map your environment, you will need to move the OnePlus 6 around until you see dot patterns on the area you wish to measure. It also helps to do this on surfaces with some textures and layers in a good lighting environment so that the camera gets a good sense of the depth. Once the camera detects an area, you can use either the length tool or the height tool to measure an object, depending on how you want to measure it.

The three-dot option on the top right corner brings up the Settings menu where you can choose whether you want the measurement unit in terms of feet and inches (Imperial) or meters and cm (Metric). The app is generally very simple to use, and measuring object becomes easy once the camera maps the area. Once you choose a tool, you can tap on either ends of the measuring line to expand or contract so as to fit the length or height of the subject. While for the most part the app is able to get surfaces right, even in environments with average lighting conditions, do not expect measurements to be spot on.