Session platform support

Understand the features of the session subsystem, and which platforms support these features.

AR Foundation requires that all provider implementations on all platforms support the session feature, as shown in the following table:

Provider plug-in	Session supported	Provider documentation
Google ARCore XR Plug-in	Yes	Session (ARCore)
Apple ARKit XR Plug-in	Yes	Session (ARKit)
Apple visionOS XR Plug-in	Yes	N/A
Microsoft HoloLens	Yes	N/A
Unity OpenXR: Meta	Yes	Session (Meta OpenXR)
Unity OpenXR: Android XR	Yes	Session (Android XR)
XR Simulation	Yes	Session (XR Simulation)

Optional features

The following table lists the optional features of the session subsystem. Each optional feature is defined by a Descriptor Property of the XRSessionSubsystemDescriptor, which you can check at runtime to determine whether your target platform supports a feature. Refer to Check for optional feature support for a code example to check whether a feature is supported.

Feature	Descriptor Property	Description
Install	supportsInstall	Whether the session supports the update or installation of session software.
Match frame rate	supportsMatchFrameRate	Whether the session supports matching the AR frame rate to the Unity frame rate.

Optional feature platform support

The following table lists whether certain XR plug-in providers support each optional feature:

Feature	ARCore	ARKit	VisionOS	Meta OpenXR	Android XR	XR Simulation
Install	Yes
Match frame rate	Yes	Yes

Check for optional feature support

Your app can check at runtime whether a session provider supports any optional features on the user's device. The XRSessionSubsystemDescriptor contains Boolean properties for each optional feature that tell you whether they're supported.

Refer to the following example code to learn how to check for optional feature support:

void CheckForOptionalFeatureSupport(ARSession manager)
{
    // Use manager.descriptor to determine which optional features
    // are supported on the device. For example:

    if (manager.descriptor.supportsInstall)
    {
        // Install is supported.
    }
}

AR support on mobile devices

Not all mobile devices support AR by default. If you're targeting mobile platforms (ARCore and ARKit), you can check whether the user's device supports AR. On supported devices, you can request install of additional software if needed. You can learn more about AR support on mobile devices, by referring to the ARCore and ARKit documentation.

Refer to the following sections to check for AR support on your target device, and install XR software if required.

Check for AR support on mobile devices

If you're targeting mobile devices, your application needs to be able to detect support for AR Foundation to provide an alternative experience when AR isn't supported. This is relevant to projects that support ARCore, or ARKit for devices older than the iPhone 6s. iPhone models including and newer than the 6s support AR by default.

To check whether AR is available on the target device might require checking a remote server for software availability. To check for AR support, call CheckAvailability, as shown in the following code example:

public class MyComponent
{
    [SerializeField]
    ARSession m_Session;

    IEnumerator Start()
    {
        if ((ARSession.state == ARSessionState.None) ||
            (ARSession.state == ARSessionState.CheckingAvailability))
        {
            yield return ARSession.CheckAvailability();
        }

        if (ARSession.state == ARSessionState.Unsupported)
        {
            // Start some fallback experience for unsupported devices
        }
        else
        {
            // Start the AR session
            m_Session.enabled = true;
        }
    }
}

Tip

To learn more about the available session states, refer to Session state.

Install XR software on mobile devices

If your target platform supports install, you can request the device to install or update necessary XR software.

To attempt to install XR software, call XRSessionSubsystem.InstallAsync. When you call XRSessionSubsystem.InstallAsync, you can use the promised SessionInstallationSession to understand the result of the installation request.

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