World lenses: Snapchat goes big with augmented reality

Apr 19, 2017 | Mobile, Social media

Snapchat is pushing further into the high-tech world of augmented reality with “World Lenses”, a new set of rear-camera lenses that let users place virtual objects in the real world using the app’s camera. Snapchat pioneered AR in the social media space with its popular puppy dog and flower crown selfie filters, which it calls […]

Snapchat is pushing further into the high-tech world of augmented reality with “World Lenses”, a new set of rear-camera lenses that let users place virtual objects in the real world using the app’s camera.


Snapchat pioneered AR in the social media space with its popular puppy dog and flower crown selfie filters, which it calls lenses. The new update aims to add a third dimension to the effect.
“We launched Lenses a year and a half ago as a whole new way to express ourselves on Snapchat,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Since then, we’ve become puppies, puked rainbows, face-swapped with our best friends — and begun to explore how Lenses can change the world around us.”
There are no sponsored World Lenses yet, and a spokeswoman declined to comment on whether advertisers will be able to create their own AR objects to show to the app’s 158 million users.
But it’s safe to say that the feature will eventually be opened up to advertisers like Snapchat’s other sponsored lenses and geofilters.

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