AR App Development Company | Solfreaks ARVision

Solfreaks ARVision builds augmented reality apps on ARCore for Android and ARKit for iOS, with LiDAR scanning on the iPhones and iPads that have the sensor. Typical jobs are placing furniture or products in a room, measuring, virtual try-on, training overlays and real estate walkthroughs.

AR looks effortless in a demo and gets fiddly on a real phone in a dim living room. Most of our work happens in that second situation.

What AR does well, and where it struggles

Surface detection, placing a model on a floor or table and measuring short distances all work on a wide range of phones. Tracking gets worse in dim rooms, on glossy or plain white surfaces and when the camera moves quickly, and mid-range Android phones have less headroom than flagships. We design for that with prompts to move the phone and a fallback when tracking is lost.

Device support has limits you should know before you budget. LiDAR exists only on Pro iPhones, from the iPhone 12 Pro onwards, and on some iPad Pro models, so a room-scan feature won't run on a standard iPhone. ARCore works on a list of supported devices maintained by Google, so some of your Android users won't have AR at all.

When a web page is enough

If the goal is to let a shopper see a sofa in their room from your online store, a web page may do the job. Google's model-viewer component opens a 3D model in AR on Android through Scene Viewer, and iPhones can open a USDZ file in AR Quick Look straight from Safari. There is no app to install and the cost is much lower, so we recommend it when it fits, even though it's a smaller job for us. A custom app earns its place when you need measuring, try-on, scanning, offline use, guided training steps or tight control of the experience.

What's in the build

The AR experience on both platforms. Built on ARCore and ARKit, either natively (see native Android and iOS development) or with Unity's AR Foundation, chosen after a short prototype rather than by habit.
LiDAR features on supported devices. Room scans with Apple's RoomPlan, measuring, and occlusion so virtual objects can sit behind real furniture.
A 3D asset pipeline. Models converted to glTF or GLB for Android and USDZ for iOS, compressed, scaled to real-world size and checked on phones.
Performance tuning. Polygon and texture budgets, frame-rate tests on mid-range phones and a heat check so the phone doesn't struggle after a few minutes of use.
Usage analytics. Events for placement, session length and drop-off, so you can see whether people use the feature beyond the first try.

A project, in order

Use case and device check. We agree the one job the AR feature must do and compare it with your users' devices to see what's realistic. This takes about a week.
Prototype. A small working build on a real phone, tried in the kind of room your customers have, so poor tracking shows up before the screens are built.
Assets. Your 3D models are converted and tested. If the models don't exist yet, creating them is a separate line in the quote.
Build and tune. The full app, with a new build on test devices every week.
Release. Store submission for both platforms, with ARCore set as required or optional depending on whether phones without AR support should be able to install. Allow a few days for review and fixes; our app publishing work covers how we handle that.

Where AR is worth the money

AR fits retailers and manufacturers selling large or visual products, real estate and interior businesses, training providers that need step-by-step overlays, and apps where measuring or scanning is the product.

It is probably not for you if you want virtual clothing try-on that looks like a real fitting. Body-fit AR is convincing in demos and rarely in a changing room. Glasses, hats and make-up, which follow the face, are far more realistic. Nor is it for you if you can't provide or fund 3D models: AR without good models is a tracking demo.

Budget and timeline

Four things drive the price: the number of distinct AR interactions, how many platforms are involved, how many 3D models need preparing or creating, and how much polish and device testing the app needs. We quote a fixed scope for a prototype and a first release, and move to a monthly arrangement once the app is live and growing. A prototype usually takes two to four weeks, and a first store release typically takes two to four months. The quote follows a short discovery call.

Working with us on AR

Play Store rules and ARCore are everyday ground for us: we're a small team in Rawalpindi with apps published on Google Play. Clients in the Gulf and the UK get a comfortable overlap with Pakistan time and talk to the developers directly. The source, the 3D asset files and the store accounts belong to you. If you have a product in mind, tell us what you need and we'll say whether AR is the right way to show it.

Open-source tools and references

A few public projects that come up a lot in this kind of work. They belong to other people and teams. We link to them because they are worth a look, not because anyone pays us to.

google-ar/arcore-android-sdkARCore SDK and samples for Android.
google/model-viewerWeb component for showing 3D models and AR.
KhronosGroup/glTFSpecification of the glTF 3D asset format.

Frequently asked questions

Which phones will the AR features run on?

On Android, devices on Google's ARCore supported list. On iOS, recent iPhones and iPads that support ARKit. LiDAR features need a Pro iPhone or a LiDAR-equipped iPad Pro. We check your analytics to see how much of your audience that covers and build detection into the app, so unsupported phones see a clear message or a simpler alternative instead of a crash.

Do you make the 3D models?

The pipeline that converts, compresses and tests models is ours. The modelling itself is a separate line in the quote, because it depends on what you sell. If you already have a 3D artist or CAD files, we work from those. If you need models made from scratch or from photos of real products, tell us early, since it can be a large part of the budget.

Can we add AR to an app we already have?

Yes, as a separate module. Where possible we build it natively so it fits the existing app. Embedding a Unity-built AR view is possible too, but it adds app size and build complexity, so we use it only when the AR content is heavy enough to justify it. We'll explain the trade-off after looking at your current app.

How accurate is phone-based measuring?

Good enough for planning and rough sizing, not for cutting materials or ordering fitted furniture. Accuracy depends on lighting, surface texture, distance and whether the phone has LiDAR, which helps noticeably. We design the interface to present results as estimates and to guide users to re-measure when tracking is weak.

Will the AR app drain the battery or make the phone hot?

AR uses the camera, motion sensors and graphics chip all at once, so it is demanding on any phone. We cap frame rates, keep models light and test long sessions on mid-range devices to see how they cope. Short, focused sessions suit AR best, and we design flows around that rather than around someone holding a phone up for ages.