Ingress for iOS coming in 2014

Android gamers have been enjoying a mobile augmented reality game from Google called Ingress for while. About a month ago, Google rolled out an update to the game bringing it version 1.35.1, which added fixes and performance boosts among other things. Word has surfaced that Google is working on Ingress for iOS users, but it won't be coming anytime soon.

Ingress product manager for Google, Brandon Badger, tipped that Google was working on the game for Apple fans, but the game won't launch until 2014. Badger didn't offer any specific timeframe in 2014 for the game to be available for iPhone and iPad users. Ingress launched in closed beta last November and has about 1 million activations so far.

The game also reportedly has hundreds of thousands of active players every month on Android devices. The game has players from around the world playing against each other on one of two teams called The Enlightened and The Resistance. The point of the game is for players to uncover clues about a mysterious the technology. New clues are provided via live a story from Google each week.

Gameplay has players claiming local landmarks in the real world for their chosen side. Badger also noted that Niantic Labs, which is the autonomous start up within Google responsible for Ingress and another app called Field Trip, hopes to use what it learns about location-based gaming via Ingress to create a mobile platform allowing outside developers to create location-based games. Currently developers working for Niantic are the only developers that have access to a specialized version of Google's local data.

SOURCE: AllThingsD