Snapchat Introduced Snappables, AR-Enhanced Interactive Lenses

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They can be controlled via touch, motion, and facial expressions…

Snapchat Wednesday introduced a new type of augmented-reality-enhanced interactive lens, Snappables, calling them the first shared AR experiences on the messaging application.

Snappables will begin rolling out globally this week on iOS and Android. They will appear in the app’s lens carousel, and new ones will appear dynamically, as other lenses currently do. Snappables will be on the left side of the circular capture button, while World Lenses and face lenses will be on the right.

The new lenses enable users to share experience and play AR games with friends, and they can be controlled via touch, motion, and facial expressions.

Once a Snappable is chosen from the lens carousel, on-screen directions are provided and friends can be invited to join. Snapchat said some Snappables “invite you to jump into another world,” while others are more like games, where facial expressions and movements are used to play.

Friends can be invited to join rock bands or challenged to emoji dance-offs or basketball games, as examples, and one game uses a filter that transforms players’ eyeballs into barbells, which can be lifted by raising their actual eyebrows.

Some Snappables are more like games, where facial expressions and movements are used to play Snapchat.

A Snapchat spokesperson said, “We see Snappables as just the very beginning of a new type of AR experience on Snapchat. Up until today, lenses have been about transforming your look or the world around you through content. Snappables invite you to become a part of another world and share that world with your friends.”