Niantic’s Peridot: The Augmented Reality Alien Dog Now Serves as a Chatting Tour Guide

Picture yourself walking your dog. It explores its environment—sniffing certain objects, marking others. You stroll along the Embarcadero in San Francisco on a clear sunny day, spotting the Ferry Building in the distance as you gaze out at the bay. Your dog turns to you, meets your gaze, and says, “Did you realize this waterfront was obstructed by piers and a freeway for a century?”

Now, envision that your dog resembles an alien and only you can perceive it. This is the concept behind a new feature designed for the Niantic Labs AR experience Peridot.

Niantic, also the creator of the global AR sensation Pokémon Go, aims to realize its vision of bridging the metaverse with the tangible world by empowering individuals to enhance their surroundings with digital items. Peridot is a mobile game allowing users to customize and engage with their adorable Dots—dog-like digital companions appearing on your phone’s display as if interacting with real-world objects through your camera lens. They’re irresistibly cute, and yes, they bear a resemblance to Pokémon. Now, they can converse.

Peridot originated as a mobile game in 2022, later integrating generative AI elements. The game has transitioned to Niantic Spatial, a new startup established in April that seeks to transform geospatial data into an inviting space for its AR initiatives. Rebranded as Peridot Beyond, it has been made available on Snap’s Spectacles.

Hume AI, a startup managing a large language model focused on enhancing chatbot empathy, is collaborating with Niantic Spatial to give voice to the Dots on Snap’s Spectacles. This partnership was first revealed in September and is now ready for public demonstration at Snap’s Lens Fest developer event this week.

Snap’s latest Spectacles, its augmented reality smart glasses.

Courtesy of Snap