What's augmented reality?
Augmented reality (AR) lays digital information over the real world you can see — through a phone or a pair of glasses.
What it actually does
AR shows you the real world — usually through a phone camera, sometimes through glasses — and adds digital things on top, placed where they belong. Direction arrows lie along the actual street. A translation appears on the sign you point at. A label names the thing in front of you. You could even preview a sofa in your own room before buying it.
Where it fits with the other tools here
AR belongs to the same family as the other tools on this site: it makes useful but invisible information visible, right where you need it. The difference is how directly it does it — the information sits on the world itself. You stay the one looking and acting; AR adds a layer, not a decision. It's still emerging and far from perfect, so whether it helps is fair to test rather than assume. You can see what these tools are good and not good at.
What does augmented reality (AR) actually do?
It adds digital information on top of your live view of the real world — through a phone or glasses — placed where it belongs, like an arrow on the street or a label on a thing. The real world stays as it is; you just see a helpful extra layer, and you stay the one deciding.