Google is really getting some momentum behind their Augmented Reality efforts. As a follow up to the announcement of Cloud Anchors at Google I/O earlier this month, they’ve updated their proof of concept app, Just A Line, with a neat new cross platform collaboration feature.

The feature utilises Cloud Anchors for Augmented Reality (AR), allowing you and a friend on either an iOS or Android device to make your own whacky AR creation. At Google I/O using a beer pong demo the techs advised that the system uses the Firebase back-end to sync the two phones consistently even cross platform.

It’s quite a neat, and seemingly easy thing to do. To set it up you’ll need a friend with an Android or iOS device both running Just A Line (it’s a free app on Google Play and the iOS app store). Then, here’s how to set it up according to the ‘What’s New’ description:


2.0 – Draw with friends in AR, real-time – Just put two phones side-by-side and tap the partner icon. Once the phones are connected, you and your partner will be able to see, and contribute to, the same drawing.

And here’s what it looks like in action

Google has open-sourced Just A Line in order to give developers interested in making their own AR apps using Cloud Anchors for either Android or iOS an idea of how to do it.

Source: Google.