Niantic is working on its own Augmented Reality glasses

A few weeks ago, Niantic head, John Hanke, appeared at Microsoft Ignite to discuss the HoloLens, Augmented Reality and showcase a small Pokémon AR demo. As it turns out, Niantic has bigger plans beyond partnering with Microsoft, as Hanke is now teasing Niantic Augmented Reality glasses. 

This week, Hanke took to Twitter to post a teaser image of Niantic's first piece of hardware, built to interact with games on Niantic's augmented reality platform:

Exciting to see the progress we’re making to enable new kinds of devices that leverage our platform… pic.twitter.com/yYglk4q89G

— John Hanke (@johnhanke) March 29, 2021

Nothing has been shared on specifications, pricing, a launch window or anything else. However, we can ascertain a few details from the image itself. We can clearly see a lens for AR viewing, a speaker on the side and an adjustable strap, indicating that rather than resting on top of your ears like traditional glasses, these will wrap around your head to take the weight off.

Niantic has been working with augmented reality on smartphones for years now, starting with Ingress in 2012 and resulting in licensed projects like Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite over the last five years.

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KitGuru Says: Apple's AR glasses are still a couple of years away and the Microsoft HoloLens isn't widdling down to the consumer market anytime soon. With that in mind, it would be very interesting to see what Niantic can bring to the gaming space with its own AR device. Hopefully additional details aren't too far away. 

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