Google has made is augmented reality measurement app available more widely to all smartphones compatible with its ARCore platform. Called Measure, the app is now available for download through the Play Store on devices like the Pixel and Pixel 2, as well as all others Android phones that support ARCore.
By making Measure available to more users, Google has beaten Apple to the punch. Apple, too, announced an app called Measure for iOS users with devices that support the company’s ARKit platform. Apple’s Measure app uses ARKit 2 to accurately measure three-dimensional objects and spaces. Google Measure also does the same, but to download it, users need to ensure they have the latest version of ARCore (1.3.18) on their smartphones.
Google’s Measure AR app is fairly easy to use and worked pretty accurately for me. When you start the app, it will ask you to move your phone around the space where the object that needs to be measured is kept. Users are encouraged to find textured and well-lit surfaces for a more accurate measurement.
After the phone calibrates the camera to the surface, users can apply the height and length tools to object on their screen and drag each of the tools to measure. Moving closer to the object allows one to measure it from various angles.
Measurements are available in Feets and Inches or Meters and Centimeters. These metric preferences can be edited from the Settings menu in the top right corner of the screen. Photos with measurements can also be saved to the camera roll.
Although Google’s Measure app completes the task of measuring small objects pretty decently, it’s not so easy to use for measuring walls and room sizes. Google itself claims that the measurements are estimates in its description of the app on Play Store. Also, unlike Apple’s Measure app, Google’s version cannot automatically detect dimensions such as the size of a picture in a photo frame. Honestly, we haven’t tried out Apple’s Measure app, but what we saw in the demo presented at WWDC this year, we feel the Cupertino giant has a better product on their hands.