Google has been experimenting with augmented reality for a few years now, but never in such an ambitious way as it’s announcing today... sort of. For April Fools’ Day this year, Google has created a video advertising an augmented reality Pokémon game loosely tied into Google Maps. In Google’s vision, players would hold their smartphones out in front of them and see Nintendo’s cartoon creatures appear on screen before them, often ready to do battle.
Google Maps is overrun with Pokémon for April Fools’, and you can catch ‘em all
is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.
Of course, augmented reality isn’t quite that sophisticated yet — and anyway, waving your cellphone around while rock climbing and walking past traffic seems more than a little dangerous. But Google does give us an opportunity to start catching Pokémon on Google Maps: if you zoom into certain areas around the world on Google Maps’ iOS and Android apps today, you’ll actually see some of Nintendo’s famous creatures appear. There’s apparently 150 in all (though notably, not exclusively the original 150), and you can even start filling up a Pokédex while collecting them.
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