The Unity team announced that v2019.3 of the engine will add support for using Unity as a library controlled by native Android/Java and iOS/Objective C apps.

The Unity team announced that v2019.3 of the engine will add support for using Unity as a library controlled by native Android/Java and iOS/Objective C apps which means that you will be able to insert AR and other Unity features.

“We know there are times when developers using native platform technologies (like Android/Java and iOS/Objective C) want to include features powered by Unity in their apps and games,” states a blog post. “Starting with Unity 2019.3.a2, you can integrate the Unity runtime components and your content into a native platform project so you can use Unity as a library.”

Basically, you will have the ability to use augmented reality (AR), 3D/2D real-time rendering, 2D mini-games, and more in your native mobile apps.

To enable this feature, the team changed the structure of the generated iOS Xcode and Android Gradle projects as follows:

• A library part – iOS framework and Android Archive (AAR) file – that includes all source files and plugins
• A thin launcher part that includes app representation data and runs the library part

You can get more details about the changes to the Xcode/Android Gradle projects in this thread. Learn more about the announcement here.