8th Wall Now Works Across All Major iOS Apps

th Wall already provides frictionless WebAR experiences to a massive audience and the company’s most recent update makes it even better. The new iOS 14.3 update features camera access to WKWebView, allowing for WebAR experiences to now work in all major iOS apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Chrome. The update allows WebAR experiences built on the 8th Wall platform to be easily discovered and reach the 728 million iPhone users around the world.

8th Wall’s WebAR already has an incredible reach of around 2.9 billion Android and iOS devices and has the lowest barrier to entry for users to engage with augmented reality experiences with just the click of a button to access it. iPhone users were previously supported in Safari and apps including Twitter and Slack, which use SFSafariViewController web views, however the latest update now allows brands to connect with iPhone users in all of their favourite apps. 

With iOS 14.3, applications which utilise WKWebView are now able to run 8th Wall WebAR experiences, which includes the most popular social media apps, as well as this, iPhone users can also experience WebAR content within any iOS app or even in the browser of their choice. The update removes another layer of friction to create even more accessible AR experiences, allowing users to jump straight into the experience, no matter where they are with just the click of a button. 

Now that 8th Wall Web Ar experiences are easy to access through social media platforms, brands can boost their discoverability through their WebAR content by including links to the experience through their page bio, or through promoting the experiences through paid ads and sponsored content. If brands are posting a story on Instagram or Snapchat from a verified account, they can add a “Swipe Up” link that instantly launches your WebAR experience.

Brands can add augmented reality, including Image Targets, Face Filters and World Effects to their mobile app with 8th Wall. WebAR can now be embedded into mobile apps as a link or iFrame and leverage the power and freedom of the web by integrating external APIs, including analytics within your WebAR experiences. As updates to WebAR experiences can be made instantly, brands can benefit from getting faster development cycles and have complete control over the launch schedule of a project.

8th Wall’s has added support for WKWebView on devices running iOS 14.3 and higher and updated our open-source library XRExtras. The XRExtras library provides modules that handle the most common WebAR application needs, including the load screen, error handling and social link-out flows which direct users to the right place, maximising accessibility of WebAR projects built for these apps.