OPPO Brings The Great Barrier Reef Into Aussie Homes

OPPO partners with Reef Restoration Foundation in a bid to “Recolour The Reef”

OPPO Australia has partnered with The Reef Restoration Foundation (RRF) developing an Augmented Reality mobile app to help raise awareness of the timeliness of saving the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef.

As a leading smart device provider, OPPO harnessed its technology to create the education and awareness tool with the intention of actively making a difference to the largest coral reef in the world. Bringing the reef into homes across Australia, the Recolour The Reef app shows a 3D digital render of the coral networks that make up the reef. The AR experience was developed from images and video captured on the OPPO Find X3 Pro of the Great Barrier Reef corals just off the shore of Fitzroy Island, which is also one of the locations of RRF’s ocean-based coral nurseries.

Available to download now on both Google Play and the App Store, the new mobile app works to educate on the risks the reef is facing. Showing a gauge of cumulative stressors which users can slide across to see the impact these have on coral reefs, demonstrating coral bleaching.

As part of OPPO’s partnership with the Reef Restoration Foundation, for each app download throughout March and April, OPPO is pledging a $1 donation to help with the regeneration of damaged corals through RRF’s ocean-based coral nurseries, meaning Aussies can help contribute to the restoration of the reef just by downloading the app and encouraging their friends to do so.

Speaking of the newly announced partnership, Managing Director of OPPO Australia, Michael Tran said, “At OPPO, we are committed to exercising our corporate social responsibility to address both local and global environmental challenges to proactively make a positive change.”

“Last year the Great Barrier Reef experienced its third major bleaching event in the past five years. Reef Restoration Foundation is growing and planting coals that are naturally more resilient for regenerating degraded reefs. We saw this partnership as an opportunity to amplify the restoration efforts of this community-based organisation that is dedicated to preserving this natural wonder that is part of our national identity,” said Tran.

Reef Restoration Foundation is a not-for-profit social enterprise that is establishing a series of ocean-based coral nurseries to assist with the restoration of the reef and help build its resilience. This process of coral regrowth mimics nature and accelerates the growth process to enable reefs to recover from bleaching and cyclone damage faster.

“The partnership with OPPO Australia is a very exciting and important collaboration. The AR app is an education and awareness tool. People only want to protect the things they know about,” said Ryan Donnelly, CEO of Reef restoration Foundation.

“We are trying to generate hope and there’s a realistic optimism around the Great Barrier Reef if people are prepared to act,” added Donnelly.

The Recolour The Reef app is the start of a long-term corporate partnership, with OPPO looking forward to further supporting the Reef Restoration Foundation in their mission to produce 1,000,000 new corals on the Great Barrier Reef by 2026.

For more information, visit: recolourthereef.com.au