One of Snapchat’s defining features would be its “lenses”. These are basically filters for real-life where thanks to the use of augmented reality, it allows users to augment things like their faces by introducing some pretty funny and crazy filters. It also allows them to overlay information like weather information based on their location.
Also recently with the latest Ghostbusters movie, the app’s world lenses allowed users to augment falling snowflakes with characters from the movie. However it seems that the company’s AR ambitions don’t end there. A report from The Information (paywall; via Engadget) has revealed that Snap is working on “smarter lenses”.
So what does this mean? What are “smarter lenses”? Basically this is an upgrade of the existing system that will be better at identifying objects and could wrap them up in an AR layer, which means that any surface can be turned into a billboard of sorts which allows users to share their stories in a different way, or at the same time allow for different advertising/branding opportunities.
Imagine walking into a store and pointing the app at a wall which could reveal specials or discounts that are only available to Snapchat users, for example. No word on when this upgraded feature will be launched but apparently at the moment it is being tested internally.
Filed in . Read more about Apps, Augmented Reality (AR) and Snapchat.