GOOGLE ALLOWS USERS TO TEST AR NAVIGATION

Tech giant Google, in the 2018 I/ O developer’s conference, showed off a new augmented reality feature for Google Maps, which would provide people with directions from your phone’s camera in realtime.

As of February 2019, the feature is still a long way from being rolled out. But, some users have started to test this new navigation feature, reports The Verge.

It “isn’t likely to be your primary turn- byturn option, it’s a huge step in the right direction for Google Maps,” WSJ’s David Pierce, who got to try out an early version of the feature, said in the report.

Mr Pierce went on to describe how the feature worked — the app picks up a person’s location via GPS, and then uses Street View data to narrow it down to your exact location. Once his location was pinned down, it displayed big arrows and directions in his screen.

“It was as if Maps had drawn my directions onto the real world, though nobody else could see them.”

He goes on to say that the app doesn’t appear to let you use the camera persistently, urging you to put it down after a short while.