Snapchat Takes Augmented Reality Plunge With 3D World Lenses Live Filters

When you're doing battle with the biggest social network in existence, it's pretty difficult to make sure that you're always offering your customers fresh functionality to stay ahead of the pack - which has been Snapchat's modus operandi for quite some time. Just a month ago, Facebook copied Snapchat's Stories feature, and mere weeks later, it copied Snap's ability to add a variety of filters to your Stories.

At some point in the future, Facebook should be bringing the ability to add 3D objects to the videos you share, as Snapchat has just unveiled the feature today. A quick, but great example of its use can be seen in this video (a static image like the one above doesn't do the feature any justice):

These 3D objects, which come as part of the "World Lenses" update, could potentially become one of the most notable updates the popular messaging service has ever added. It could make simple videos come alive with rich graphics and animations.

What makes the feature really fun is the fact that objects don't remain in the same perspective once they're placed. This is an augmented reality feature, so if you place an object (like a flower in the top image) in the scene, you can walk around it, and its perspective will remain correct. Because it's almost impossible not to draw this comparison: those who've played Pokemon GO will be quite familiar with this AR mechanic.

If you want to take advantage of this slick new feature before Facebook decides to adopt it, make sure you're running the latest version of Snapchat (version will vary based on device).