Google shutting down Project Tango in March 2018

Google will turn its attention to ARCore that doesn't require special hardware.

Google announced Friday it will stop supporting Project Tango, its first augmented reality platform for developers, on March 1, 2018. The end of Project Tango comes as Google focuses on ARCore to build AR apps and games for Android devices.

"As we focus on bringing augmented reality to the entire Android ecosystem with ARCore, we're turning down support of Tango. We thank the incredible community of developers who made such progress with Tango over the last three years. We look forward to continuing the journey with you on ARCore," a Google spokeswoman.

Project Tango was launched in 2014 to enable mobile devices to detect their position relative to their world around them without using GPS. A developer phone and tablet were launched by Google to spur app development for 3D mobile sensing experiences. Lenovo also launched a Project Tango-based phone, including a sensor and camera on the rear of the device to track 3D motion.

Unlike Project Tango, ARCore doesn't require additional hardware.

On Friday, Google released the second developer preview of ARCore, adding functionality that lets AR apps pause and resume AR sessions, for example to let a user return to an AR app after taking a phone call.