- Kyle Chua
Google Expands Partnership With Singapore Tourism Board To Bring Location-Based AR Experiences on Google Maps
You’ll soon be able to enjoy new augmented reality (AR) experiences in Singapore from within Google Maps.
Google announced at I/O 2024 its expanded partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board to create more location-based AR experiences that would allow you to embark on an immersive journey across key tourism precincts in the island city.
The partnership builds upon the success of Merli’s Immersive Adventure, an AR tour that was launched on STB’s Visit Singapore Travel Guide app in January this year. The tour follows Singapore’s tourism mascot, Merli, as he guides you to six iconic spots across the city, including the Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall, Fullerton Hotel and Maxwell Food Centre.
This time around, however, the AR experiences won’t be limited to the travel app, and will instead be available on Google Maps for the first time. It’ll once again be powered by Google's ARCore and Geospatial Creator technologies, but there’ll be more locations to visit.
STB has invited over a dozen tourism stakeholders in Singapore to join the project, who themselves will also develop location-based AR experiences. These stakeholders include retail malls along Singapore’s Orchard Road, local heritage businesses in Chinatown and popular museums and attractions.
All in all, there’ll be 30 places of interest with AR experiences that you can check out. Google says that these places include a “unique blend of multicultural neighbourhoods, iconic architecture and delicious cuisine” like Chinatown, the Supertree Grove at Gardens by the Bay and Sentosa Sensoryscape, among others.
“In collaboration with local partners like STB, we're thrilled to unlock a new way for people to interact, engage and discover Singapore's vibrant culture and history on Google Maps,” said Eric Lai, Group Product Manager, AR. “Through location-based AR experiences, we're making it more intuitive for over a billion users to discover this iconic city in a way like never before.”
You’ll be able to view the AR content remotely via Street View on the Google Maps mobile app regardless of your location. But if you’re near the landmark, you can use Lens in Maps to scan your surroundings and have the AR content appear as an overlay in the real world.
The full experience will be available on Google Maps later this summer. STB plans to further grow the number of location-based AR experiences in Google Maps beyond 30 as it continues to pursue its goal of making Singapore the world’s first “AR City” in Google Maps.
Google announced its expanded partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board to create more location-based AR experiences that would allow you to embark on an immersive journey across key tourism precincts in the island city.
The AR experience will be available Google Maps for the first time and can be accessed remotely via the mobile app.
It'll be available for you to enjoy later this summer, with plans to grow the initial 30 locations in the future.