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Galactic Compass 2: now with new augmented reality mode
I updated my Galactic Compass app for iPhone with augmented reality mode.
Galactic Compass is a floating green arrow that always points the way to the middle of the Milky Way, 26,000 light years away.
It went kinda viral at the time. It was in the “top free apps” charts at the App Store briefly. In the Travel category. (I keep a list of press mentions over on Acts Not Facts.)
Why so popular? Probably because it was early “vibe coding” – I copy-and-pasted between ChatGPT and Xcode to code it, and that was new at the time.
But ALSO because knowing where the galactic centre is surprisingly grounding? I wake up every few months to an email in my inbox from someone who is having a tough time in life, or is losing a loved one, or similar, and somehow they have discovered Galactic Compass and they tell me how they sit outside at night with a cigarette and gaze at the arrow and it gives them a place of comfort and infinity.
I know what they mean. The Earth spins; it turns around the Sun; and so, at first, the supermassive black hole of the galaxy appears to slowly whirl around us, above and under the horizon, round and round. But then your perspective flips, and we are the ones moving, and the centre of the galaxy becomes a fixed point, our rock.
Plus a new Liquid Glass appearance ready for iOS 27.
Apple’s in-camera augmented reality is really, really good. Like, the arrow remains rock solid as you walk around. I hope they keep improving it.
I added a specific interaction that I’m intrigued by: you can hold down on the compass around to “drag” it around. It remains about 75cm away in phone reference frame, then drops into world frame when you release. I like how fluid it feels. My phone starts to feel like a glove that can reach into the virtual.
With the Apple Watch app… RealityKit, Apple’s graphics SDK, isn’t supported on watchOS. So how does the arrow rotate any which way? The joy of AI and agents that grind problems into dust: Claude Fable built its own 3D graphics library. Astounding.