Google broadens AR horizons with native Unity support to Tango

Last year saw the launch of the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro – the first Tango AR-enabled smartphone capable of advanced 3D mapping. The concept itself was fascination, although between stability issues and a general lack of focus, the Phab 2 Pro failed to live up to its full potential at launch.

All is not lost, however, and more software may be headed toward Lenovo's Tango-enabled phablet, as well as future devices powered by the AR platform, thanks to upcoming, native support for one of the most ubiquitous game engines out there – Unity.

Tango will be joining Googl's VR platform Daydream in gaining native support for Unity, Google's PM for Developer Platforms Nathan Martz announced at Unity's Vision AR/VR Summit. Integration for the engine is slated to roll out later this year, in version 2017.2 of Unity, Road To VR reports.

“This is going to make Tango AR development for smartphones just as accessible and powerful as Daydream VR is today,” Martz said during the keynote.

With AR gaining traction in the last year or so — mainly thanks to the success of Pokemon Go and the countless imitators that followed suit — and with more Tango-powered tech on the horizon (such as Asus' upcoming ZenFone AR), introducing native support for one of the most ubiquitous gaming engines to the platform is a smart move on Google's part.