I’m excited to share that Scaniverse is joining Niantic! You can read the official announcement over at the Niantic blog.

From the beginning, Scaniverse has aimed to be an app that anyone can use to capture and share the things they care about in 3D. After seeing some of the amazing scans posted by members of our community, I’m more convinced than ever that 3D will become an essential part of how we communicate in the future.

Niantic is equally optimistic about the future of 3D. They’ve spent the last decade building a living 3D map of the world for exploration and shared experiences. Along the way, they’ve established themselves as a leader in augmented reality. Together, we plan on taking 3D scanning to new heights by combining Niantic’s dynamic mapping with Scaniverse’s lidar reconstruction, and I could not be more excited.

Scaniverse will remain a standalone app in the App Store, and development will continue as before. With the help of Niantic’s amazing team of computer vision experts, we hope to bring many new features and quality improvements to Scaniverse over time.

Scaniverse Pro is now free

We strongly believe that 3D content creation should be accessible to everyone. As a result, we’re making Scaniverse Pro free, starting today. All features, including ultra-quality processing and model export, will be unlocked. If you already have a subscription, you won’t be charged when it comes up for renewal.

Wandering through San Diego’s Balboa Park on a recent afternoon, I stumbled upon a plaza commemorating its founding. In 1868, Ephraim Morse and Alonzo Horton convinced San Diego to set aside 1,400 acres for use as a public park, though the city had just 2,300 residents at the time. The sculpture depicts the two of them looking out over the newly-allocated land, imagining how it would one day grow into a vibrant urban park.

I believe 3D scanning is in a similar place today. Though the technology is still in its early days, we can see the outlines of a future in which anyone can effortlessly capture every memory in 3D. Over the coming months and years, we hope build out the technology necessary to achieve this vision.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Scaniverse community — everyone who has created a scan, posted online, or sent feedback has played a critical role in getting Scaniverse to where it is today. And I’m excited to be embarking on the next leg of this journey with you.

- Keith Ito, Scaniverse Founder