Two stories landed this week that, taken together, tell you almost everything about where augmented reality is heading. In one corner: AR is being used to transform how millions of people watch live athletics on television. In the other: Samsung is quietly shutting down three of its augmented reality phone apps. The technology isn’t dying — it’s moving.
AR on the Big Screen: The Birmingham Story
When viewers tuned in to the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships, they were treated to a broadcast experience unlike any previous edition in European sport. Augmented reality graphics were woven into the live coverage in ways that went beyond the familiar yellow first-down line of American football — placing real-time data, athlete comparisons, and spatial overlays directly into the broadcast picture.
This is AR doing what it was always theoretically capable of but rarely delivered on in live sport: adding genuine information value without interrupting the experience. A viewer watching a 100-metre final doesn’t want to pause and look something up. AR brings the data to them, in the frame, at the moment it matters.
The European Athletics Championships aren’t a niche event. Broadcast across dozens of countries to audiences of tens of millions, the Birmingham deployment represents AR at genuine scale — not a demo, not a pilot, but a live production environment delivering results good enough to make the flagship broadcast of one of the world’s major sporting federations.
AR on the Small Screen: Samsung’s Quiet Exit
On the same week that AR was enhancing the biggest athletics event in Europe, Samsung quietly confirmed it is shutting down three of its augmented reality apps. AR Doodle and Quick Measure will stop receiving downloads and updates on December 31, 2026. Deco Pic follows a year later, on December 31, 2027.
The three apps were originally part of AR Zone, a suite of AR features pre-installed on Galaxy phones from the S20 onwards. AR Doodle let users draw in the air with their camera. Quick Measure used a 3D depth camera to estimate physical distances. Deco Pic added AR effects to photos and video.
Samsung hasn’t explained the decision, but the context makes it readable. As one observer noted, AR still exists inside Samsung’s software — it’s just been folded into features rather than promoted as its own category. The same thing happened to “metaverse” branding and “blockchain” marketing once AI became the dominant pitch. The technology doesn’t disappear; the label does.
Two Trajectories, One Technology
What these two stories reveal is that augmented reality is undergoing a sorting process. The applications that genuinely add value — AR in broadcasting, AR in surgery, AR in navigation, AR in smart glasses — are thriving and expanding. The applications that were always slightly looking for a reason to exist — drawing in the air with your phone, measuring things with a camera — are being quietly retired.
This is actually healthy. Every technology goes through a phase where it gets applied to everything, whether the fit is good or not, because novelty drives adoption. The retreat of gimmicky AR phone apps doesn’t signal the decline of AR — it signals that the category is maturing. The applications with genuine utility are finding their permanent homes. The ones that were always a bit forced are being cleared away.
The broadcast AR at Birmingham and the smart glasses launches at IFA 2026 this week represent the genuine utility end of that spectrum. Samsung retiring AR Doodle represents the other end. The technology is consolidating around the use cases where it actually makes people’s lives better — and that’s a good thing for the long-term health of the industry.
At AugmentedReality.com, our take: The contrast between these two stories is one of the clearest signals we’ve seen about where AR is heading. Broadcasting, wearables, surgery, navigation — these are the applications where AR earns its place every time it’s used. Phone gimmicks that were always slightly awkward are giving way to tools that are genuinely indispensable. Samsung killing AR Doodle isn’t a setback for AR. It’s the category growing up.