Mozilla Launches iOS App To Experiment With WebAR

By Nathaniel Artosilla, Christian Post Contributor Monday, December 11, 2017

The Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit organization behind Mozilla Firefox web browser, has made another huge contribution to internet innovation after it made its experimental WebXR Viewer app available for download on iOS devices. By releasing its app, Mozilla now allows developers to quickly experiment with web-based AR built with web technologies and Apple's ARKit.

Back in October, Mozilla proposed a combined WebXR standard AR and VR in the browser to give developers standardized and well-documented tools with which to access the user's chosen mixed reality platform.

According to a recent blog post, the WebXR Viewer lets users view web pages created using Mozilla's own JavaScript library that features sample code for a proposed API for building augmented reality and virtual reality applications in web browsers. Mozilla maintains that developers will be able to test, demonstrate, and share their web-based AR experiments more easily by using the app.

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According to Blair MacIntyre, principle research scientist on Mozilla's mixed reality team, the code written with their JavaScript library will run not only on iOS WebXR Viewer but also Google's experimental WebARonARCore APK on Android. He also said team is also currently working on bringing support to other AR and VR browsers such as WebVR on desktop.

"We've talked with the folks at Google in the past about how to implement AR ideas on the web, given them feedback on what they've done with their WebAR sample implementations, and we're making sure that our WebXR javascript library works in their apps so that developers have the freedom to use whichever apps they want to experiment with these new technologies on the web," said MacIntyre.

For the meantime, the app is catered to developers to tinker with not as full-fledged consumer product. Developers can download the WebXR Viewer for iOS on iTunes here. Just like Apple's ARKit, only devices capable of running iOS 11 or later need apply.