First App of Its Kind Streams Your HoloLens Screen to iOS

Dec 13, 2016 09:22 PM
Dec 14, 2016 03:37 PM
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Kazendi, a London-based HoloLens development and rapid prototyping studio, just released a new iOS app in Apple's App Store that lets developers stream HoloLens applications live from the headset to an iPad or iPhone. It's called HoloStream, and is the first iOS/HoloLens crossover app we've seen so far.

HoloStream, priced at $39.99, is designed for those occasions where you want to show off a holographic presentation and there's not enough headsets to go around.

This app offers an intuitive feature list designed to get you in and using it quickly:

  • Automatic HoloLens detection
  • Record your live stream
  • Save screenshots
  • Auto-restart
  • Low latency

When asked if this app will support Android in the future, Kazendi's Chief Prototyper, Maximillian Doelle, told me, "It will depend on the success of the iOS version."

In the day and age of free applications with micro-transactions or subscriptions, $39.99 seems like a hefty price tag—especially for some of the smaller independent developers having just spent $3,000 to $5,000 on a HoloLens. On the other hand, cross-platform auto detection is never easy to get working. Mix that in with the other features listed above and the price may be justified.

Of course, there are the obvious free alternatives for Windows PC and Windows Mobile users—the HoloLens companion app or the HoloLens' built-in web server. However, if the client you are building a HoloLens app for is a fashion or music magazine, there is a high probability that iOS devices will be in abundance with zero Windows PCs in sight.

Could an application like this help you demonstrate your HoloLens prototypes better? Does the $39.99 price tag scare you, as a developer, away from potentially using this product? Does the cross-platform functionality and simplicity of the application justify that price? Let us know in the comments.

Full disclosure: Kazendi is a company I do freelance work for sometimes, just so it's out there.

Cover image by Kazendi/YouTube

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