Google's 'Just a Line' Lets You Draw on the World Around You

Draw a line on the world around you with Google’s ‘Just a Line’ ARCore app

With the release of ARCore 1.0, a slew of new apps featuring Google’s augmented reality technology have been launched to the Google Play Store. But Google isn’t sitting back and letting everyone else have all the fun — it’s launching AR apps of its own as well. Take, for example, an app it calls “Just a Line.”

As the name suggests, the app is simple, but it’s still pretty fun. All you can really do is draw white lines over the top of whatever your phone’s camera can see. It’s very similar to Google’s previous AR app, Tilt Brush, which allows users to paint in 3D space. That app was only available on VR-compatible devices, however, so it’s nowhere near as accessible as Just a Line. In fact, there’s a pretty long list of devices that support Google’s ARCore, including the Google Pixel 2, LG V30, Samsung Galaxy S9, and so on.

Google does note that the app is a bit of an experiment.

“Just a Line is an AR Experiment that lets you make simple drawings in augmented reality, then share your creation with a short video,” reads the description for the app. “Touch the screen to draw, then hit record and share what you make with #justaline. Just a Line works on any device that supports ARCore.”

It’s nice to see all these new apps that support ARCore — and quite a few of them have been launched over the past few days. At launch, over 60 apps using ARCore were released to the Google Play Store, including the likes of My Tamagotchi Forever, which allows you to to raise your Tamagotchi characters and populate Tamatown.

Google in particular has been putting a pretty heavy emphasis on augmented reality as of late. The company even announced the Google Maps API, which allows developers to turn the real world into augmented reality apps — similar to Pokémon Go. The fact that developers can build on the already-established Maps infrastructure makes for a much more detailed game. This also means that developers can focus on other aspects of the app, rather than having to focus on the mapping aspect, which Google handles.

It’s likely Google will continue to release ARCore-based apps, and it will be interesting to see what those apps look like.

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