Wol - a mixed reality experience for the web from Niantic

At Niantic, we believe that AR experiences should connect you to the real-world and encourage you to explore. Our first mixed reality headset experience helps us achieve this mission by using passthrough augmented reality to bring the outdoors to you.

Meet Wol, your loveable guide to the redwood forest. Wol is a mixed reality experience from Niantic which features a Northern Saw-whet owl who has lived in the redwood forest for their entire life. Wol joins you in your space through an AR portal which opens a door to the redwood forest. As an AI-enabled owl, Wol is ready to have a natural conversation with you about the plants on the forest floor, the lifecycle of a tree and the creatures of the forest.

This limited release, browser-based experience was built to showcase one of 8th Wall’s most powerful features, Metaversal Deployment, which enables developers to build once and deploy everywhere — smartphones, computers, tablets, VR HMDs, and now mixed reality devices like Meta Quest Pro.

Metaversal Deployment was designed for a new responsive web where immersive websites need to adapt to a device ecosystem which now includes flat screens and wearable headsets. One of the key benefits of Metaversal Deployment is allowing users to access the same AR-enabled website on any device and have a meaningful experience, such as 3D on computers, AR on mobile, and mixed reality on passthrough capable devices. This in turn gives developers the widest reach possible for the content they have created.

This experience was created in partnership with Liquid City who used Inworld, the developer platform for AI characters, to bring Wol to life.

Embark on your woodland experience by visiting MeetWol.com on an iOS or Android smartphone or in the Meta Quest 2 or Meta Quest Pro headset.