Snapchat Uses a Google Chrome Extension to Bring Back AR Lenses
With Snapchat Camera for Chrome, you can enhance your webcam with AR lenses.
Snapchat just released the Snapchat Camera for Chrome, which allows users to utilise a Google Chrome extension to apply AR Lenses to their webcams.
After that, you may use the AR Lenses for livestreams, video chats, video recordings, and more. You can even utilise any custom lenses you create.
The internet tech site Engadget, which has been carefully monitoring Snapchat’s AR development, claims that their resurgence is not surprising given they have always been an integral part of Snapchat’s brand.
In the description of the app on the Google Chrome web store, Snapchat has listed a few advantages of the new AR Lenses. It mentioned having access to a huge assortment of Snap AR Lenses, which include the newest styles and holiday themes, to personalise each engagement.
Users who have created and uploaded Lenses may integrate them to offer a unique touch. They will be able to easily improve video interactions on a variety of digital platforms.
Encouraging consumers to unleash their creativity in every connection and enjoy the beauty of Snap AR Lenses is the aim.
Since the epidemic caused most people to connect and work together online, augmented reality filters gained popularity.
Although Snapchat did not provide an official explanation for the shutdown of its own desktop camera app with augmented reality folders in January of last year, it is possible that it was related to the company’s prior financial difficulties.
Though it was still a major setback if you were a frequent user of AR lenses, the feature did not entirely vanish as users could still utilise Lenses on their PCs using Snapchat for Web.
Since its fifteen minutes of glory in 2020, augmented reality has been growing quickly and is once again finding traction, not just among the Snap community but also among tech behemoths like Microsoft, Google, and Meta.
Given that it debuted Local Lenses in 2020, Spectacles in 2021, and other AR innovations, Snapchat has a clear connection to the AR space.
Former Coca-Cola Company design director Brett Morris estimated that Snapchat had spent hundreds of millions on augmented reality in a piece published last year. However, Meta’s yearly commitment of 10 billion dollars to the technology blows this expenditure out of the water.
Microsoft is also heavily interested in augmented reality. In addition to integrating Snapchat’s AR Lenses with Microsoft Teams, the video conferencing software was expanded to use augmented reality in new ways by the company last year. For instance, Microsoft released frontline augmented reality capabilities for iOS and Android this month, building on the HoloLens 2’s popularity with this technology.
Google, however, already has its fingers (so to speak) in the AR pie thanks to its Chrome web browser, which is naturally immediately tied to Snapchat’s AR filters.
Google unveiled a worldwide augmented reality (AR) pilot project last month, partnered with various businesses and companies to demonstrate how location-based immersive experiences may benefit brands and the travel and tourism industry.
Snapchat may not have the resources of businesses like Meta, but it does have the perfect user base—a youthful, innovative community—with whom it can share its amazing augmented reality innovations.
