Paul Morris on June 10, 2018, 5:54 am

How To Use iOS 12 ARKit 2.0-Based Measure App

Apple isn’t exactly new when it comes to rendering some third-party apps entirely useless. Historically speaking, it has done this by updating iOS to include some of the functionality which device owners have previously had to rely on apps from the App Store (or even jailbreak tweaks) to get.

WWDC 2018 was a great example of this with Apple’s new iOS 12 Measure app sherlocking a ton of apps which used the original ARKit framework to offer measuring functionality.

Now though, let’s dive right in and show you exactly how you can measure quickly – and hopefully reliably – using Apple’s new Measure app within iOS 12 which is based on updated ARKit 2.0 framework.

Step 1: First and foremost, you are going to need to have iOS 12 beta 1 installed on an iPhone. If you haven’t, then you can’t access the stock Apple Measure app. If you have, then congratulations as you have step one in the bag. Launch the new Measure app to begin.

Step 2: The on-screen instructions will ask you to move your iPhone around. This is almost like an initial calibration process. After a while, you will see a white circle with a white dot inside of it. Once you see that, move the white dot to the initial point where you’d like to start measuring from and tap the “+” button at the bottom of the view.

Step 3: Now, you are in measuring mode. Move the phone so that the white dot is where placed on the location where you’d like measuring to end. So, as an example, if you are measuring the length of a table, then this point will be the opposite end of the table from where you started. You will notice that the UI is constantly updated to show you the real-time measurement. Once again, tap the “+” sign and this will end the measuring.

Step 4: One of the great things about the app is that it’s using ARKit to continuously look for, and recommend, points at which it can measure. So, the app may find the corner of a wall or the interaction of wall and floor and recommend that area for you with some haptic feedback.

Step 5: Once your measurements have been collected and you are happy with the results, then you can snap the Shutter button in the bottom right-hand corner of the view to capture a screenshot of the measurements.

If you have a keen eye, you may also have noticed the “Level” option in the tab bar of the new Measure app. As well as measuring from point-to-point, Apple has also brought the leveling feature from the Compass app into this new iOS 12-only Measure app. It’s likely that this will grow over time with new functionality added.