Web AR means a customer opens a link and places your product in their room, with no app to install. Behind that one link, iPhones and Android phones do it differently. Knowing the difference helps you write the instructions around it, and plan for the visitors who cannot use AR at all.
On iPhone and iPad
Apple's AR Quick Look opens the model in a full-screen view that is built into iOS. The customer taps the AR button, points the camera at the floor or a table, and the product appears at its real size. They can move it, turn it, and take a photo of it in their space.
Because the viewer is part of iOS, it looks and behaves the same from one website to the next, which makes it easy to explain once.
On Android
On many recent Android phones, Chrome can place the model inside the web page itself, so the customer never leaves the site. Where that is not available, the phone hands the model to Google's own AR viewer instead. Either way the idea is the same: camera on, find a surface, place the product.
Android phones vary more than iPhones. AR needs Google Play Services for AR installed and up to date; most phones sold in recent years support it, but not every model does.
On a computer
A desktop or laptop cannot place anything in a room, so the same link shows the interactive 3D view instead: the customer can turn the product around and zoom in. Put a QR code next to it as the bridge. They scan it with their phone and carry on in AR.
That is how the Try AR section on our home page works: pick a model, scan the code, and it opens straight into AR on the phone.
What the customer needs
Tell customers what to do in one line next to the AR button. 'Point your camera at the floor' does more than a paragraph of help text.
A reasonably recent iPhone or iPad, or an Android phone with AR support
To allow camera access when the phone asks
A clear, well-lit surface: phones find floors and tables by their texture, so a plain white table in dim light is the hardest case
A connection fast enough to download the model, which is why file size matters
Plan for people who cannot use AR
Some visitors will be on an older phone, some will decline camera access, and some simply do not want to point a camera at their home. Keep the 3D view, product photos and dimensions on the page, so the AR button is an extra rather than the only way to understand the product.
Before launch, test the whole path on at least one iPhone and one Android phone, including what happens when camera access is refused.
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