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Snapchat is adding a new way to use its app that brings its popular filters beyond faces. The new \u2018World Lenses\u2019 add augmented reality elements to any scene you can capture with your camera, placing 3D objects you can actually walk around with your smartphone\u2019s camera, which is actually a lot closer to what we used to mean when we said \u201caugmented reality\u201d in its earlier days.<\/p>\n
Snap notably doesn\u2019t use \u201caugmented reality\u201d or \u201cAR\u201d once in its blog post announcing the news, preferring instead to talk about how users can \u201cpaint the world\u201d with \u201c3D experiences.\u201d The intro video, however, will reveal something pretty familiar to anyone who bought into the early hype of the Nintendo 3DS, which came with AR cards that let you place and virtually interact with 3D graphics that looked like they were anchored to, and blended with, the real world.<\/p>\n
Based on the demo videos Snap provided, this is a much more impressive incarnation of AR, however, that requires neither QR codes nor other kludgy markers to anchor and generate the graphics you see applied to whatever\u2019s captured via your camera lens in real time. The gifs below should provide some sense that what\u2019s happening here goes beyond the timid stumblings of the very first smartphone and portable console AR products.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nThe should be fairly easy to use \u2013 Snap says you just tap the screen while using the rear-facing camera to cycle through available World Lenses, and it adds that these will be updated on a daily basis, too.<\/p>\n