I am working on creating an AR application on iOS which can define some anchor points with some annotations and save them in the cloud. Later I want to retrieve these anchor points using any device (iOS or Android) and show them in an ARView. I know we can define anchors just using ARKit. Also we can use Azure Spatial Anchors.
My feeling is since I am using the anchors across platforms I should use Azure Spatial Anchors. But I want to know what are the exact differences between these 2 types of anchors. And is it possible to use just ARKit anchors and accurately rendered on Android devices as well? Simply, I want to know what is the best solution according to my scenario.
Azure Spatial Anchors (ASA) is actually using ARKit on iOS. ARKit makes it easy for you to implement an AR app for your iOS device. The same goes for ARCore for Android devices.
ASA allows you to bridge the two AR worlds. You can create an Anchor on one device (iOS, Android or HoloLens) and retrieve the anchor on another.
The GIF on the Share spatial anchors across sessions and devices page shows what's possible, and is what you appear to be looking for.