Best AR Apps for iPhone in 2026 | Reality Atlas | Reality Atlas
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Best AR Apps for iPhone in 2026
Reality Atlas EditorialFebruary 19, 2026
Your iPhone is already a sophisticated AR device. With LiDAR and ARKit 6, here are the 10 best AR apps for iPhone in 2026 — from IKEA Place to Pokémon GO to Sky Guide.
iPhone showing augmented reality overlay in an urban environment
The best AR camera is the one in your pocket. With every iPhone since the 12 Pro featuring a LiDAR scanner and ARKit 6 bringing room-scale understanding, object anchoring, and improved lighting estimation, your iPhone is already a sophisticated AR device. The App Store AR category has matured into a collection of genuinely useful and impressive experiences across navigation, shopping, education, design, and entertainment.
These ten apps represent the best ARKit has to offer in 2026 — from measuring tape replacements to furniture visualization to anatomy education. All are available on the App Store, and most work on iPhone 12 and newer.
1. IKEA Place — AR Furniture Shopping
IKEA Place remains the gold standard for retail AR. Point your iPhone at any room and place true-to-scale IKEA furniture from the full 2026 catalog — sofas, shelving units, dining tables, lighting. The rendering uses real-time lighting estimation to match the furniture's shadows to your room. The 2026 update added multi-item room planning (arrange an entire living room at once) and a direct checkout link from any placed item. Indispensable for anyone furnishing or redecorating.
- Category: Shopping / Home Design
- Price: Free
- Requires: iPhone 12 or newer (LiDAR for best surface detection)
- Standout: Full IKEA catalog in true-to-scale AR with purchase links
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2. Measure — Apple's Built-in AR Ruler
Apple's Measure app ships with every iPhone and is chronically underappreciated. Using ARKit's depth sensing and LiDAR, it measures objects and distances with accuracy within a few millimeters. The 2025 update added automatic room measurement — walk around a room and it generates a floor plan with dimensions. For anything from buying curtains to shipping packages, Measure replaces a tape measure in most real-world scenarios.
- Category: Utility / Measurement
- Price: Free (pre-installed on iPhone)
- Requires: iPhone 6s or later (LiDAR on Pro models adds room measurement)
- Standout: Automatic room floor plan generation on LiDAR-equipped iPhones
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a LiDAR-equipped iPhone for AR apps?
LiDAR (iPhone 12 Pro+) improves surface detection and measurement accuracy significantly, but most AR apps work on any iPhone 12 or newer.
Which AR app is best for interior design?
IKEA Place for IKEA-specific visualization; Houzz for broader product selection and professional design connections.
Are AR apps a battery drain?
Yes — expect 20-30% battery drain per 30 minutes of active AR use due to simultaneous camera, LiDAR, and GPU usage.
What iPhone is best for AR apps in 2026?
iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max for best experience. iPhone 15/16 standard works well. Minimum recommended is iPhone 12.
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Zillow Immerse brings listings off the screen and into your space. Point your phone at any room and overlay virtual furniture to visualize how a potential new home could be arranged. The 3D floor plan viewer lets you walk through a property's spatial layout from any angle. When combined with Zillow's listing data, it gives buyers a spatial understanding of properties that flat photos can't convey. Available on iPhone and Vision Pro.
- Category: Real Estate / Home Visualization
- Price: Free (Zillow account required for full features)
- Requires: iPhone 12 or newer
- Standout: AR furniture staging of listings to visualize empty spaces
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4. Complete Anatomy — Medical Education in 3D
Complete Anatomy by Elsevier is the most comprehensive 3D anatomy app in the App Store. Every organ, bone, muscle, nerve, and blood vessel is modeled in precise detail and can be placed in AR on any flat surface or examined in a standalone 3D viewer. Medical students, anatomy instructors, and healthcare professionals use it globally. The 2026 update added procedural simulation modules — practice venipuncture or injection sites in AR. The platform approach (with regular anatomical content additions) keeps it current.
- Category: Education / Medical
- Price: Free basic anatomy; Full access $29.99/month or $179.99/year
- Requires: iPhone 12 or newer for best AR performance
- Standout: Entire human body in AR — procedural simulations for medical training
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5. JigSpace — 3D Product Explainers
JigSpace turns product manuals and technical explanations into interactive 3D AR presentations. Place a life-size engine, telescope, or circuit board on your table and watch it animate — explode views, step-by-step assembly instructions, internal mechanism demonstrations. Brands use JigSpace to create AR product guides. Schools use it to explain complex machinery. Individuals use it to understand how things work. The creator platform lets anyone build a Jig without coding.
- Category: Education / Product Visualization
- Price: Free viewer; Creator plan from $29/month
- Requires: iPhone 12 or newer
- Standout: Brand-created 3D product explainers — BMW, NASA, and others have published Jigs
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6. Google Maps AR Navigation — Live Navigation Overlays
Google Maps Live View uses ARKit and visual positioning to overlay directional arrows and labels on your camera view as you navigate. Walk through an unfamiliar city and arrows float over the actual streets telling you to turn left at the next corner. The 2025 "Indoor Navigation" update extended AR guidance to airports and major shopping malls. For anyone who has ever missed a turn by misreading a minimap, this is transformative.
- Category: Navigation
- Price: Free (included in Google Maps)
- Requires: iPhone 6 or newer (better with LiDAR on Pro models)
- Standout: Indoor navigation with AR overlays at supported airports and malls
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7. Seek by iNaturalist — AR Nature Identification
Point Seek at any plant, animal, insect, or mushroom and it identifies the species in real time using on-device AI and the ARKit camera. The app connects to the iNaturalist citizen science database, which has over 100 million observations. When you identify something, your observation is submitted as scientific data. It's the app that makes any nature walk into an education session, and it's completely free. One of the most underrated ARKit experiences on iPhone.
- Category: Nature / Education / Science
- Price: Free
- Requires: iPhone 6s or newer
- Standout: Real-time species identification that contributes to citizen science
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8. Houzz — Interior Design and AR Remodeling
Houzz is the professional interior design platform that also happens to have one of the best home AR apps available. The "View in My Room 3D" feature lets you place furniture and decor from Houzz's vast product catalog in your actual space using your iPhone camera. Beyond AR, Houzz connects homeowners with interior designers and contractors and provides a massive inspiration gallery. For anyone doing home renovation or interior design, it's essential.
- Category: Home Design / Shopping
- Price: Free app; products at various price points
- Requires: iPhone 8 or newer
- Standout: Largest selection of placeable home products; connects to professional designers
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9. Sky Guide — AR Astronomy
Sky Guide is the definitive astronomy AR app. Hold your iPhone up toward the sky and it overlays constellations, planet positions, satellite tracks, and deep sky objects in real time using ARKit and location data. The "Sky Guide AR" mode creates a full dome overlay you can explore by moving your phone. The 2026 update added notifications for upcoming celestial events — eclipses, meteor showers, ISS passes — with AR visualization of what to look for.
- Category: Astronomy / Education
- Price: $2.99 one-time purchase
- Requires: iPhone 6 or newer (any modern iPhone)
- Standout: Real-time AR star map with ISS tracking and celestial event notifications
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Pokémon GO remains the most-played ARKit game in history with over 100 million downloads and daily active users still numbering in the tens of millions. The real-world location-based gameplay combined with AR Pokémon encounters has only improved: ARKit integration now uses LiDAR for occlusion (Pokémon can hide behind real-world objects), weather effects blend digital and physical environments, and the AR Snapshot feature has spawned its own photography genre. Events bring millions out simultaneously.
- Category: Gaming / AR
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Requires: iPhone 6s or newer
- Standout: LiDAR occlusion — Pokémon hide behind real furniture and walls
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a LiDAR-equipped iPhone for AR apps?
LiDAR significantly improves surface detection speed and accuracy, enabling room-scale measurements and faster object placement. It's available on iPhone 12 Pro and later Pro models, and all iPad Pros since 2020. That said, most AR apps work well on any iPhone 12 or newer without LiDAR — the difference is mainly in surface detection speed and measurement precision.
Which AR app is best for interior design?
IKEA Place and Houzz are the top choices for interior design AR. IKEA Place excels for IKEA-specific furniture visualization with superb rendering quality. Houzz has a broader product selection from thousands of brands and connects to professional designers. For architecture visualization and renovations, tools like Planner 5D also offer AR room planning.
Are AR apps a battery drain?
Yes — AR apps use the camera, LiDAR, CPU, and GPU simultaneously, which consumes battery at 2-3x the rate of normal app use. Expect to drain 20-30% battery per 30 minutes of active AR use. For extended AR sessions, use a charged iPhone or a MagSafe battery pack. Shorter sessions for measurement, shopping visualization, and navigation are typically fine without battery concerns.
What iPhone is best for AR apps in 2026?
The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max offer the best AR experience with A18 Pro chip, improved LiDAR, and the best camera system for tracking and visual positioning. The iPhone 15 and 16 standard models perform well for most AR apps. The minimum recommended iPhone for modern ARKit apps is iPhone 12 due to A14 chip performance requirements.
Can Android users access these AR apps?
Most of these apps have Android counterparts using Google's ARCore platform instead of Apple's ARKit. IKEA Place, Pokémon GO, Google Maps Live View, and Houzz are all available on Android. Sky Guide has a counterpart (Sky Map). The ARKit-exclusive features (LiDAR room measurement, precision surface detection) are replicated on ARCore-capable Android devices with similar results on flagship hardware.
