Snapchat adds World Lenses, bringing AR objects to your phone's rear camera

When you think of Snapchat's Lenses, you're surely picturing some of those incredibly goofy selfies - people becoming puppies, face-swapping with others, puking rainbows, the likes. That's because up until now Lenses were made specifically for the front-facing camera in your smartphone.

Not anymore, though. Today Snapchat is introducing World Lenses. Like the original Lenses, these are digital objects (or text) that you can add to your shots. Except now they can be placed anywhere in the world that your main, rear-facing camera sees. Hence the name.

To use the new feature, while Snapping with the rear camera you tap the camera screen to find the Lens you want to use in order to best "paint the world around you" with a 3D experience. The mention of "3D" there isn't accidental, for the digital objects actually follow the 3D environment they're dropped into, moving and rotating in a natural-seeming fashion, depending on the camera's perspective.

Now let's start the countdown for Facebook's inevitable copying of this feature.

Source | Via