Web AR: augmented reality without an app opened from your product page

Each product is prepared as two files. Android phones and web browsers read a GLB file, which holds the whole 3D model in one file. iPhone and iPad read a USDZ file, which is the format they use for AR. The product page carries a viewer that can tell which kind of phone it is on.

When the shopper taps the AR button on an iPhone, the USDZ opens in Quick Look. On Android, the GLB opens in Scene Viewer. Both are part of the phone's own software. The camera turns on, the phone finds the floor, and the product is placed there. The shopper can walk around it, slide it and turn it.

A laptop has no camera to point at the room, so on a laptop the page shows a QR code. Scanning it opens the same product on the phone, ready to place. The same code can be printed on a tag or a catalogue page: see AR QR codes.

An AR app can do more than web AR. It can place several products together, remember a room and add tools of its own. It also has to be built, published on the app stores and kept up to date, and each shopper has to install it before seeing anything.

Web AR does one job. It shows one product, at true size, in the shopper's room, a tap or two after they open your product page. We make web AR. We do not build apps.

Web AR starts with an accurate model, so we ask for what any 3D product modelling job needs: the dimensions, and a clear reference for the shape and the materials.

• The list of products, with the height, width and depth of each
• CAD, drawings or existing 3D files, if you have them
• Photographs from every side, and close-ups of the materials
• The colours and finishes to cover
• Which pieces are placed on a wall
• A link to your website, and the platform it runs on

AR needs a phone or tablet that supports it. Current iPhones and iPads do, and so do most recent Android phones. On a phone that does not, the shopper still gets the 3D model to turn on the page, and the AR button is not shown.

The phone also needs some light and a floor or wall that its camera can make out. In a dark room, or on a plain glossy floor, the phone can take longer to find the surface. This is a limit of the phone and applies to every AR viewer.

Web AR shows the product as it was modelled. A different fabric or colour is a different model, so each variant you want in AR is prepared as its own file.

People often ask about "augmented reality app development cost", because they assume AR means an app. With web AR there is no app to develop, so that cost does not apply. You pay for the 3D models and for the set-up of the viewer on your site.

We quote per model. Each product is one model, exported as GLB and USDZ. A simple shape in one material is less work than a piece with upholstery, stitching or moving parts, and the charge follows that. The reference you send and the number of variants also count. The set-up of the viewer, the AR button and the QR codes is quoted once per project.

The quote states the number of products and variants, the revision rounds and the schedule.