Hi everyone,

At Niantic, we’ve long been believers of building experiences at the cutting-edge of technology. Technology that not only brings us closer to the world around us, but also to the people that inhabit that world. Six months ago, we took another meaningful step towards that vision, reimagining the Peridot experience for the world's first glimpse of true outdoor-friendly AR glasses, Snap’s Spectacles.

We learned a lot about how to build experiences with spatial design in mind. Bringing an adorable creature from your mobile device onto a pair of glasses wasn’t as simple as just showing them on a new “screen” – the world and the people within the world now became a part of that experience. We had to develop new models of user interaction. Where in space should your creature naturally walk to before it obstructs your field of view? Where should you look if your creature isn’t directly in front of you, but elsewhere in the environment? What tangible interactions could you have with your creature in a way that the mobile device could not offer? With time and experimentation we were able to find some solutions to these questions – and over the past six months we’ve also received some amazing feedback from those of you who have been able to try Peridot Beyond to further improve the experience.

The amazing thing about Spectacles is that they align so well with Niantic’s mission of getting people outdoors, more deeply connecting to their world, feeling a little bit healthier during their day, and meeting new people. That’s why today we’re so excited to reveal a couple of major updates to the Peridot Beyond experience that further support this mission. First, we’re leveraging Spectacles Sync Kit to make Peridot Beyond a shared multiplayer experience with others. Now you and your friends can go on outdoor walks together and pet, play, and interact with each other's Dots, amplifying the magic of having a virtual pet. Next, we’ve integrated Spectacles Mobile Kit to connect the experience to our popular Peridot mobile game – meaning that as you make progress in Peridot Beyond, you’ll also be earning rewards in the mobile game. Lastly, we’ve made a variety of optimizations and improvements across other Peridot Beyond features to make them even more fun and engaging.

Even with these updates, we’re barely scratching the surface of what these and other new hardwares can bring to life. Every single day, we’re inching closer and closer to this next generation of computing – it’s within our grasp and will quite literally transform the way we interact with one another and how we adventure throughout our world. Imagine a world in which your glasses (and Dots) have a deep understanding of who you are as a person, what you like (and don’t), and a contextual understanding of the environment around you. Could we reimagine the way that people navigate throughout the world? Could we nudge people to rediscover and learn more about their neighborhoods? Could we inject more joy into a person’s day? We’ve spent years connecting the bits to the atoms. We’re going to keep dreaming up the magic to embrace this exciting future with open arms – and we look forward to bringing you along for the journey.

–Asim Ahmed (Global Product Marketing Lead) & the Peridot team

About Peridot Beyond 

Peridot Beyond offers an exciting way to experience the whimsical world of Peridot, on-the-go, outdoors, and reimagined beyond the phone screen. The experience was developed in collaboration with Nerd Ninjas and built exclusively for Snap’s AR glasses, Spectacles.