Snapchat Launches New Contextual Filters

Snapchat’s eagerness to embrace augmented reality technology for use in their app is hardly a secret. In fact while AR tech isn’t exactly new, you could almost say that Snapchat help popularize it, leading to a rise in AR-based filters and apps that we see today. Just recently the company has launched a bunch of new filters that are pretty “smart”.

By “smart” we mean that the app can recognize the object or scene that you’re taking a photo of, and will offer up a set of filters that are contextual based on it. While there is no official announcement, Snap has confirmed to Mashable that these filters are indeed new, and will be able to recognize a certain set of categories which includes concerts, beaches, pets, sports, and food.

This means that if you take a photo of your pet, a set of filters that are pet-related will appear. In a way their ability to recognize objects reminds us a bit of Google Lens, but at the same time these aren’t the first time Snapchat has launched such “smart” filters. Previously the company allowed users to attach stickers in their snaps that included the time, location, and there were even geofilters, which are filters that are based on the user’s location.

That being said, these new filters are just part of a small change coming to the app. Snap had previously announced their plans to completely redesign the app, making it easier and less confusing to use.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Photo-Video
Tags: Apps, Augmented Reality (AR), Snapchat