8th Wall
| 8th Wall | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Type | WebAR development platform |
| Industry | Augmented reality |
| Developer | Niantic Spatial (formerly 8th Wall, Inc. and Niantic) |
| Written In | JavaScript, WebAssembly |
| Operating System | Web browser (Android, iOS, desktop) |
| License | MIT License (open-source release); free limited-use binary license for the XR engine |
| Supported Devices | Smartphones, tablets, computers, AR/VR/MR headsets |
| Release Date | 2018 |
| Website | https://8thwall.org |
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8th Wall is a WebAR development platform for building markerless augmented reality experiences that run directly inside a mobile web browser with no application install. The platform uses computer vision running on the user's device to deliver world tracking, image recognition, face effects, and sky segmentation through standard web technologies, so that an AR experience can be opened from a link or QR code rather than downloaded from an app store.[1][2] The company behind it was founded in 2016 by Erik Murphy-Chutorian, and the platform was acquired by Niantic, the developer of Pokemon GO, in March 2022.[1][3]
Following Niantic's 2025 reorganization, in which its games business was sold to Scopely and its geospatial and AR technology was spun out into a separate company, 8th Wall became part of Niantic Spatial.[4][5] Niantic Spatial retired the hosted 8th Wall platform on February 28, 2026, and released the platform's core technology as open source under an MIT license, while the underlying AR engine continues to be distributed as a free binary.[6][7]
History
8th Wall, Inc. was founded in 2016 by Erik Murphy-Chutorian, who served as chief executive officer.[1] The company set out to build computer vision technology that could deliver AR across the broad install base of consumer devices without requiring a native application.[1] In 2018 it launched 8th Wall Web, presented as augmented reality that lives in the browser, built on standard web APIs so that experiences would run on smartphones, computers, and headsets straight from a URL.[2][8]
Over the following years the platform added image recognition, face tracking, and sky replacement features and was adopted for branded marketing AR campaigns. By the time of its acquisition, Niantic said 8th Wall had been used to create more than 50,000 experiences, including work for brands such as Pepsi, Microsoft, Nike, Porsche, Netflix, Heineken, LEGO, Dior, and Universal Pictures.[2]
On March 10, 2022, Niantic announced that it was acquiring 8th Wall, describing the deal as its largest acquisition to date; the financial terms were not disclosed.[1][2] Niantic positioned 8th Wall as a web-based complement to its Lightship developer platform, extending its tools for building shared, real-world AR to experiences that run in the browser.[2][3] In September 2022, after the acquisition, 8th Wall introduced Lightship VPS for Web, bringing Niantic's Visual Positioning System to the browser so that WebAR content could be anchored to mapped real-world locations.[9]
Acquisition and transfer to Niantic Spatial
In early 2025 Niantic restructured its business. On March 12, 2025, it announced that its games division, including Pokemon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now, would be sold to the mobile game company Scopely for 3.5 billion US dollars, with an additional 350 million US dollars from Niantic's balance sheet distributed as part of the transaction.[4][10]
At the same time, Niantic's geospatial and spatial computing technology was spun out into a new company, Niantic Spatial, Inc., led by John Hanke.[4][5] The new company was capitalized with 250 million US dollars, made up of 200 million from Niantic's balance sheet and a 50 million investment from Scopely, and retained Niantic's Visual Positioning System, the Scaniverse 3D scanning app, the Large Geospatial Model, and the AR games Ingress and Peridot.[4][5] 8th Wall remained part of this geospatial AR business and therefore moved to Niantic Spatial rather than to Scopely; the platform's documentation confirms that 8th Wall is owned by Niantic Spatial, Inc.[5][6] The spin-off was completed on May 29, 2025.[5]
Capabilities
8th Wall delivers its AR features entirely over the web, so that an experience loads as a web page and uses the device camera through the browser. The platform's principal features are summarised below.[2][6]
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| World Tracking | Markerless tracking of the surrounding environment that lets 3D content be placed and held in position in the physical scene, using the platform's own SLAM engine.[11] |
| Image Targets | Recognition and tracking of flat images such as printed media, posters, and product packaging, so AR content can be triggered from physical materials.[6] |
| Face Effects | Real-time tracking of a user's face to apply filters, masks, and 3D overlays through the front camera.[6] |
| Sky Effects (Sky Segmentation) | Detection of the sky region in the camera view so that it can be replaced or augmented with effects.[11][6] |
| Lightship VPS for Web | Browser access to Niantic's Visual Positioning System, anchoring content to mapped locations and exposing a 3D mesh of a place for occlusion and physics.[9] |
A distinguishing characteristic of 8th Wall is that all of these capabilities are delivered without an app install. Because dedicated AR apps had historically been required to reach features like world tracking on mobile, the ability to run comparable experiences from a link lowered the barrier for marketing activations and one-time experiences.[1][2]
Technology
8th Wall Web is built on standard web technologies rather than a native AR runtime. The platform runs its computer vision on the user's device in the browser using the JavaScript MediaDevices API, the Sensor API, WebGL, and WebAssembly, with its C++ code transpiled to WebAssembly so it can run client-side.[8] Its custom SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) engine performs feature point extraction, sensor fusion, triangulation, mapping, and relocalization from the camera feed to keep virtual objects registered to the real world, moving as much of this processing as possible onto the GPU through WebGL.[8]
This approach let 8th Wall reach a wide range of devices using widely available web APIs rather than depending on the browser-native WebXR Device API for tracking, while integrating with common web 3D engines.[8] The engine works with JavaScript 3D frameworks such as A-Frame and Three.js, so developers can author scenes in familiar tools and let 8th Wall provide the camera and tracking layer.[8] Rendering is performed with WebGL, the same graphics standard that underpins WebXR content on the web.[8]
Current status
Under Niantic Spatial, the hosted 8th Wall platform was retired on February 28, 2026. All paid subscriptions ended on that date, and the hosted cloud editor, user logins, and web-based studio were taken offline.[6][7] Existing published experiences continue to run until February 28, 2027.[6]
Alongside the shutdown, Niantic Spatial released the platform's core technology as open source under an MIT license at 8thwall.org, including the Image Targets, Face Effects, and Sky Effects modules together with utilities and example projects; no account is required and the tools are distributed through GitHub.[6][7] The XR engine itself is provided as a binary that is free to use, including for commercial projects, under a limited-use license, and certain advanced capabilities (such as the Visual Positioning System, Maps, and hand tracking) were not part of the open-source release.[6][7]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Pokemon GO creator Niantic is acquiring WebAR development platform 8th Wall". 2022-03-10. https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/10/pokemon-go-creator-niantic-is-acquiring-webar-development-platform-8th-wall/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 "Welcoming WebAR Development Platform 8th Wall To Niantic". Niantic. 2022-03-10. https://nianticlabs.com/news/welcome-8thwall.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Niantic acquires WebAR dev platform 8th Wall". 2022-03-10. https://venturebeat.com/business/niantic-acquires-webar-dev-platform-8th-wall.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Niantic's Next Chapter: Introducing a New Home for Niantic Games and a New Future for Niantic Spatial Inc.". Niantic. 2025-03-12. https://nianticlabs.com/news/niantic-next-chapter.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Niantic Spatial". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niantic_Spatial.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 "FAQ". Niantic Spatial. https://8thwall.org/?site_path=faq.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Niantic's WebAR Creation Platform '8th Wall' Goes Open Source as Hosted Services Go Offline". 2026-03-10. https://roadtovr.com/niantic-webar-platform-8th-wall-open-source/.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 "How We Engineered AR for the Mobile Browser with 8th Wall Web". 8th Wall. 2018-09-27. https://medium.com/8th-wall/how-we-engineered-ar-for-the-mobile-browser-with-8th-wall-web-bce26c84682b.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Introducing Lightship VPS for Web: Bringing the Real-World Metaverse to the Browser". Niantic. 2022-09-22. https://nianticlabs.com/news/lightship-vps-web.
- ↑ "Scopely to acquire Niantic games business, which includes Pokemon GO". 2025-03-12. https://www.scopely.com/en/news/scopely-to-acquire-niantic-games-business-which-includes-pokemon-go-one-of-the-most-successful-mobile-games-of-all-time.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "8th Wall introduces new Sky Effects and World Tracking features for its WebAR development platform". https://www.auganix.org/ar-news-8th-wall-introduces-new-sky-effects-world-tracking-features-for-its-webar-development-platform/.