Huawei wants P40 users to navigate museums in AR

Huawei’s AR Map app is available worldwide, but it only works at a few sites in China

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The Huawei AR Map app shows off the Deer of Nine Colors, a traditional Buddhist tale, at the Mogao Caves. (Picture: Huawei Terminal/Bilibili)

Published: 8:00am, 10 Apr 2020Updated: 8:00am, 10 Apr 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

The biggest selling point of Huawei’s newly unveiled P40 series smartphones is probably the cameras. But there’s also a related feature that hasn’t received as much attention: A map app that uses augmented reality for navigation.

For now, the feature is pretty limited. Huawei told us the app is available to download worldwide, but it currently only supports a few locations in China.

One of those locations is Mogao Caves, a Buddhist art attraction in the northwestern city of Dunhuang. A promotional video posted online shows that when the P40’s camera is pointed at the caves, the app can overlay information on the screen.

Users can also see virtual Buddhist characters displayed in their surroundings, like a Buddhist Pokémon Go. The app can be used to navigate at the site, too, with virtual flower petals laying out a path for people to follow.

The Huawei AR Map app is exclusively available on P40 series phones. But since it only covers places in China right now, it wasn’t introduced during the P40’s global unveiling. Huawei didn’t answer questions about how many locations are currently covered.