Snap and Camo Bring Unique AR Streaming Feature To Users

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Snap Inc. and Reincubate — creator of the Camo app — have joined together to offer an augmented reality experience that marries Camo’s overlay, zoom, pan, and other features to Snapchat. The new feature allows users to use Snap’s Camera Kit with their streaming, video chats, gaming, professional meetings, and more.

This isn’t the first time Snapchat has dabbled with augmented reality, but unlike the 2019 paint tool, the Camera Kit is designed specifically to make augmented reality a lot more intuitive and natural during streams and other video events.

Who can use it and for how much?

The use of Snap’s Camera Kit is completely free, so you don’t have to worry about having content restricted or behind any paywalls. Those using iOS, Windows, or MacOS can use the AR Camera Kit today, while those operating with Android will have to wait for support to be added sometime later in 2021. Options will also be implemented to help creators monetize their creations to promote a healthy and productive ecosystem of content. And a live showcase and celebration of the AR features from Camo will start at 10 a.m. PT today for the Camera Kit’s release.

What does the Camera Kit do?

Those who wish to use the kit can easily do so by finding the AR lenses in the Camo Studio. Once selected, a dozen launch lens options will pop up to use. Each of them generally falls into one of four categories:

• Focus
• Accessibility
• Masking
• Novelty

These categories give users multiple choices in highlighting the focus on the speaker in their streams, more easily convey emotions and visual cues for watchers, provide better attempts at effortless masking, and offer a wider variety of lenses to just have fun and experiment with.

More on augmented reality

While the other great AR apps of 2021 don’t work directly with ongoing streaming, they do offer a wide array of options to those looking for different AR uses and ideas. The Camera Kit might be the first of them to finally make AR apps mainstream and a must-use. While only 12 lenses will launch with the Camera Kit, creators will begin to release new content to keep fans of the Camera Kit surrounded with plenty of options to pick from.