Multi-user route tracking in an augmented reality environment

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for providing an augmented reality (AR) experience in a parallel-reality application in which a geography of a virtual world parallels a geography of at least a portion of a real world, the instructions executable by a computing system and comprising:

• instructions for receiving a connection request from a client device;
• instructions for receiving a route that the client device traversed in the real world, the route comprising a plurality of locations in the real world;
• instructions for determining a plurality of virtual locations at which to place virtual elements, each virtual location corresponding to one of the locations in the real world of the route;
• instructions for updating a global state of the AR experience to include the plurality of virtual elements at the plurality of virtual locations;
• and
• instructions for providing, to a second client device, AR data that causes the second client device to display at least some of the virtual elements at at least some of the virtual locations corresponding to at least some of the locations in the real world.

A computer system comprising:

• a computer processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for providing an augmented reality (AR) experience in a parallel-reality application in which a geography of a virtual world parallels a geography of at least a portion of a real world, the instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to perform actions comprising:
• receiving a connection request from a client device;
• receiving a route that the client device traversed in the real world, the route comprising a plurality of locations in the real world;
• determining a plurality of virtual locations at which to place virtual elements, each virtual location corresponding to one of the locations in the real world of the route;
• updating a global state of the AR experience to include the plurality of virtual elements at the plurality of virtual locations;
• and
• providing, to a second client device, AR data that causes the second client device to display at least some of the virtual elements at at least some of the virtual locations corresponding to at least some of the locations in the real world.