It’s available as both an accessory bundle and a full kit with the drone.
Mat Smith for Engadget
Antigravity's debut drone could do a lot, combining 360-degree cameras (from parent company Insta360) with POV goggles and a one-handed point-and-fly controller. The A1 was a lot of fun to fly and offered a new way to capture drone video, letting users reframe footage after the fact by cropping into the 360 video to focus on the most interesting action.
The company's latest announcement isn't the A2, but a new accessory package it calls the Follow Me bundle. It includes propeller guards, a watch remote and a ring remote, and it's built to offer new hands-free shooting and tracking options. It's available now both as a complete bundle with the A1 drone for $799, as well as an accessory kit for $340. (Existing A1 owners will get a substantial discount, priced at $272.)
The watch and ring pair adds several new functions to the drone. It improves tracking performance by combining visual tracking with the Watch Remote's built-in GNSS to lock onto moving subjects more reliably. The duo also works as a new gesture-control system, so you don't need the one-handed controller and bulky goggles to fly the A1 and capture footage.
The bundle adds a new (and at times frustrating) control system: Drag-to-Fly gestures. After selecting the tracking subject on the watch display, press and hold the Ring Remote's button to initiate the new control method, with an audible confirmation and vibration from the Watch Remote.
Mat Smith for Engadget
Unfortunately, the watch hardware is chunky. It looks like an Apple Watch knock-off from about 10 years ago. It has a touchscreen interface, a manual button and charges through USB-C. Expect roughly five hours of use when paired with a drone, though you're more likely to run down three drone batteries before then. It comes with a fabric wrist strap, but the connective links are a little flimsy, so I had to be careful putting it on. The ring is even flimsier, with a very delicate Velcro strap. The kit includes a bike mount for the watch remote and a USB-C charging grip for the ring.
You can use the watch alone for tracking, but the possibilities expand when you add the ring. Hold the ring button down and point at the drone, then move your hand left, right, up, or down, and the A1 will follow along pretty responsively.
There's also a distance gesture: rotating your arm and wrist inward brings the A1 closer, while doing the opposite sends the drone farther away. There are a few wrinkles and quirks to remember, like selecting the tracking subject right at the start. You also can't move the drone through all three dimensional planes at once. Pointing moves the drone vertically and horizontally away from the user, while rotating your arm affects pitch. To change both, I had to release the button, then press it again to adjust the drone's positioning.
One piece of feedback for Antigravity: I don't want to do a single-handed salute while flying a drone, especially when I want it to go higher. Could we make it a thumbs-up? Or anything else.
The Watch Remote also includes touchscreen controls for launching the A1, switching video modes, adjusting flight paths and initiating pre-programmed flight moves like vertical spirals, flyovers and more. Recent A1 updates added a palm take-off option, so you don't need to set up the drone's landing mat before launch or risk using wet or mucky surfaces.
Mat Smith for Engadget
Antigravity advises that the Follow Me bundle is for outdoor flying and recommends at least 2 meters of vertical clearance. Excessively reckless takeoff spots will cause the drone (and the watch) to start beeping until the A1 has sufficient space. There's an experimental feature that reduces take-off clearance down to a meter, but use that at your own risk.
I like the new control method that doesn't require a camera case's worth of accessories to pilot the A1. While I only briefly tested the A1 on a bike, I couldn't use it while cycling solo until now. The gestures are a simple way to add some control to the A1's recording when it's tailing behind you, though I wish I could control both distance and positioning at the same time. Also, the voiced notifications got annoying very fast — thankfully you can turn them off.
One of the highlights is the pre- programmed drone flight paths that offer some professional-looking flight shots, like "antigravity line" which combines a vertical ascent with a sudden dive towards the subject, as well as several orbital paths that will adjust to fly around any obstacles, like trees or buildings.
Mat Smith for Engadget
The lack of propeller guards was a mild oversight when Antigravity released its first drone. I unintentionally slammed the A1 into several walls during my test flights. Several propellers were scratched up and a little chipped from my overenthusiastic maneuvers. The four guards are lightweight and clip over each propeller pair, but they don't fully protect against curious fingers, which can slip into the sides of the plastic cages. But, they're a welcome optional addition to the A1 drone nonetheless.
The base A1 drone already offers Deep Tracking mode, which uses visual tracking. Still, it's understandably less consistent, and many users report that the A1 struggles to keep up with fast-paced activities like biking or snowsports. Previously, the A1 also required the goggles and controller to fly; the Follow Me kit makes for a lighter (if more limited) drone flying package. If you use the propeller guards, portability takes a hit, since the propeller arms can't fold away while the guards are attached.
This new kit also lets me fly the A1 without a buddy nearby, which is important. In case you didn't know: Flying an FPV drone like the A1 solo outdoors while wearing goggles is illegal in the US and Europe because it violates the Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) rule, which requires the pilot to be able to see where the drone is going.
The Follow Me kit expands Antigravity's A1 drone in playful ways, making one of the most versatile video drones even more capable. However, it adds to the cost of an already expensive consumer drone.