How to Add AR Previews to Your App — Copy-Paste Prompts Inside

ARCore requires Android 9+ (Pie) and a device on Google's ARCore supported devices list. As of 2026, the vast majority of actively used Android phones qualify — but very low-end devices (under $100) and older flagship models from 2017 and earlier may not. Use ARCoreApk.checkAvailability() at app launch to detect support and route unsupported users to the 2D fallback.

Photogrammetry tools like Poly.cam, Polycam, and RealityCapture can generate a rough 3D model from 20–40 product photos taken from different angles — no 3D artist needed for simple objects. Complex items (transparent glass, highly reflective surfaces, very thin parts) still need a 3D modeler. AI text-to-3D tools (Meshy.ai) can generate plausible models from a text description for prototyping, though output quality varies significantly. Budget for manual cleanup by a 3D artist for production quality.

ARKit and ARCore both degrade in very dark environments — plane detection and tracking require visible textures and features in the camera feed. Below roughly 50 lux (dim indoor lighting) you will see increased anchor drift and failed plane detection. Add lighting hints in your surface detection guidance UI: 'For best results, use in a well-lit room.' ARKit includes an ambient light estimate you can read to show a warning when lighting is too low.

Yes. Capture the screen using the screen_capturer Flutter package (which includes the camera texture), then trigger Share Plus's share() method with the file path. On iOS and Android, this opens the native share sheet where users can choose Instagram, TikTok, Messages, or any installed app as the target. Some apps (notably Instagram Stories) support direct sharing via their URI schemes — wire these separately if you want one-tap share to a specific platform.

Raw .glb exports from Blender or Sketchfab are typically 5–50 MB per model. Apply Draco mesh compression (integrated into Blender's glTF exporter and the gltf-pipeline tool) to reduce this to 1–5 MB per model. Show a download progress bar when models load over cellular — a 20 MB model on a slow 4G connection takes 5–15 seconds and users will assume the feature is broken without a visible indicator.

ARKit is Apple-only (iOS 16+ and iPadOS). Android users get ARCore, which provides comparable functionality: plane detection, hit testing, anchor placement, and light estimation. Both are accessed through Flutter's ar_flutter_plugin with a unified API. The only difference your app needs to handle is the model format: .usdz for iOS, .glb for Android. Store both in Supabase Storage and select the correct one based on Platform.isIOS at runtime.

Yes, for simple color swaps. ARKit and ARCore both support material property changes at runtime — you can update the albedo color of a material on an already-placed model without reloading the entire .usdz or .glb file. This requires native code or a Flutter method channel call to the AR session, specifying the material index and the new color value. It is not supported out of the box in ar_flutter_plugin — plan it as a custom extension if color switching is a product requirement.

On standard phones, ARKit and ARCore achieve ±5–10% scale accuracy on flat surfaces, which is sufficient for most furniture previews. On iPhone Pro models with a LiDAR scanner (iPhone 12 Pro and later), ARKit uses depth data to improve both scale accuracy and placement speed significantly — LiDAR phones detect surfaces 4–5× faster and achieve ±2–3% scale accuracy. If true-to-scale accuracy is a product promise, target LiDAR-equipped iPhones as your primary device tier and communicate this to users.