White House AR app puts the nation’s most prestigious address on a $1 bill

A new app called 1600 will build a virtual White House on a real one dollar bill before your very eyes using augmented reality – and it’s the product of the White House itself. Created by the product team headed by ex-Facebook employee and current White House product director Joshua Miller, the free app for iOS and Android contains a history lesson as well as interactive animations.

The app is looking to tap into the fresh interest in AR driven by the success of apps like Pokémon Go to get kids (and adults, too) interested in the history of the White House and the U.S. presidential office administration. Tapping around the virtual structure will reveal easter eggs including U.S. Presidents represented as tiny characters, and the whole thing is overlaid by a narration done by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest as the visuals cycle through seasons and events heads at 160 Pennsylvania Avenue.

This isn’t likely to cause the kind of user frenzy engendered by Pokémon Go at its launch, but it’s a cool use of AR that is genuinely engaging. Plus I can finally use this U.S. $1 bill I had in my Canadian wallet.