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Niantic’s Peridot Is Now A Tour Guide
Courtesy of Niantic Labs
Niantic Labs — the mobile app company behind Pokémon GO — has upgraded its AR pet simulator Peridot (first released in 2022) into an AI-powered companion that can guide you, narrate your surroundings, and share interesting facts… but only if you’re wearing Snap’s Spectacles.
Why It Hits: Niantic has long been on a mission not just to gamify AR, but to transform it into a technology that connects users with the world around them. Peridot is a rare game that inspires players to not only explore their environment, but truly engage with it.
Behind The Code: Peridot Beyond poses the question: What if your dog could talk to you on a walk?
According to Wired, the game lets you customize Dots — small 3D digital companions that can identify what’s in your field of view and provide real-time information or walking directions via animated footprints.
The game update was co-developed by Niantic Spatial — a new venture within Niantic aimed at “turning geospatial data into an accessible playground for AR” — and the AI startup Hume AI.
Unlike earlier versions, the new Peridot isn’t playable on your phone — it’s only accessible via Snap’s AR glasses, Spectacles.
Last Stop: With Peridot, Niantic set out to recreate the feeling of exploring a new city with a local friend — an experience that can “reduce the stress of navigation but also just kind of make people feel calm,” says Alicia Berry, executive producer at Niantic Spatial. The real breakthrough, according to Hume AI founder Alan Cowen, is that Niantic has built an AI that “sees what you see.” There are a lot of use cases for that kind of cutting-edge technology.
The tradeoff? You’ll need to wear the oversized Spectacles — which, as you can imagine, will definitely make you stand out in a new town.
Next Tour: If Niantic, Hume AI, and Snap can find a way to make Dots interact across users, it could be a total game-changer for Spectacles sales.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.