With the discontinuation of Adobe Aero and Meta Spark AR, many creatives lack a tool for augmented reality. The startup Trace, founded by former Magic Leap employees, aims to fill this gap with a new no-code platform, promising simple tools for complex content. Their software is intended to enable the creation of interactive augmented reality experiences without prior technical knowledge and to publish them cross-platform on mobile devices, AR glasses, and headsets. AR content should thus be implementable cost-effectively, quickly, and without external support.
One platform, Three Components
The Trace platform consists of three central components: a mobile app for…
With the discontinuation of Adobe Aero and Meta Spark AR, many creatives lack a tool for augmented reality. The startup Trace, founded by former Magic Leap employees, aims to fill this gap with a new no-code platform, promising simple tools for complex content. Their software is intended to enable the creation of interactive augmented reality experiences without prior technical knowledge and to publish them cross-platform on mobile devices, AR glasses, and headsets. AR content should thus be implementable cost-effectively, quickly, and without external support.
One platform, Three Components
The Trace platform consists of three central components: a mobile app for content creation, a web-based studio for project management, and a viewer for publishing and using the content. In the Creator App, 3D models, videos, texts, and personal avatar recordings can be directly inserted into real environments. This can be done either freely placed or location-bound, for example, via GPS or image recognition.
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Trace Studio serves as the central management hub for scenes, projects, teams, and assets. Content can be managed, shared with others, and published via drag-and-drop. Published content can finally be consumed via the Trace Viewer App. Supported are iOS, Android, and Apple Vision Pro, as well as Meta Quest and Microsoft’s no longer further developed industrial AR headset, HoloLens 2.
Content can be deployed across devices and, according to the manufacturer, should automatically adapt to different end devices. For the display of location-dependent scenes, image anchors are used, which serve as visual reference points for the placement of digital objects. Simple interactions with the environment are also possible, for example, through collision detection and depth sensing.
Target Audience: Creatives, Brands, Companies
According to CTO Martin Smith, Trace is aimed at a broad audience—from individuals and artists to companies. First corporate clients are already on board, including T-Mobile, Telefónica, Qualcomm, Lenovo, and Deutsche Telekom. The launch occurs at a strategically opportune moment: Adobe Aero was discontinued on November 6th, Meta Spark AR already at the beginning of the year. Trace is thus directly stepping into the resulting gap.
To facilitate the transition, the company is offering former users of Aero and Spark three months of premium access for free. The Trace Creator App is available in its basic version for free for iPhone and iPad in the App Store, and the web platform is accessible at studio.trace3d.app. For the premium version, Trace charges around 20 US dollars per month.
(joe)
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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.