March 17, 2021 – Snap Inc., the company behind Snapchat, has announced the launch of Custom Landmarkers in Lens Studio, letting creators anchor Lenses to local places to tell richer stories about their communities through augmented reality (AR).
Snap stated that the launch of Custom Landmarkers is part of its process to continually advance the Snap AR platform, so that 250,000 Lens Creators can build the next generation of computing experiences that enhance the way users play, learn, explore, and shop.
In 2019, the company started with templates of 30 sites around the world that creators could build upon called Landmarkers. This made it possible to anchor AR creations to iconic structures, like the Gateway of India and Egypt’s Great Sphinx of Giza. Snap noted that the next step on from this was to bring understanding to even larger areas, like entire city blocks and squares.
Local Lenses was then introduced in 2020, allowing Snapchatters to engage with their surroundings even more, by splashing AR paint across the buildings of London’s Carnaby Street for example. Recently, Snap partnered with the UK’s Black Cultural Archives and Kugali Media to showcase the moments, figures, and stories of Black British history that lie behind Trafalgar Square.
The main point to the evolution of Snap’s technology being that the more the Snapchat camera understands surrounding spaces, the more creativity can be unlocked by the Snapchat creator community. The new Custom Landmarkers have therefore come about due to the infinite number of places for the AR creator community to build anchored, location-based Lenses for Snapchat – ranging from experiences that are entertaining, educational, or can even help businesses grow, according to Snap.
Custom Landmarkers are discoverable through physical Snapcodes at associated landmarks, or on a Lens Creator’s profile. Snap’s moderation team approves all Lenses before they’re publicly accessible to ensure that they comply with the company’s Community and Lens Submission Guidelines.
The company stated in an announcement: “As we continue to evolve our augmented reality platform, we want to ensure the experiences creators make ultimately support the wellbeing of our community and improve the ways they relate to the world around them. This means we’ll thoughtfully surface and moderate AR content on our platform, as we do with all content.”
For more information on Snap’s Custom Landmarkers for location-based augmented reality experiences through Snapchat, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Snap Inc.
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.