USING ‘LENSES’ - Advanced Techniques & Snapchat Secret Features

USING ‘LENSES’

 Lenses are a bit sillier and initially less intuitive than filters, so they may never make it into your content strategy, but at least this way if you get a snap where someone’s face is distorted into some sort of horrifying rabbit or gigantic-eyed anime character you’ll know what’s going on.  Basically, lenses recognize faces in the camera space and can apply various masks and distortions to them.

To try out a lense, you’ll need head to the home/camera screen then press and hold down anywhere on the screen before you’ve take a picture or started recording your video, and while the camera is aimed at a human face.  After holding down for a second or two, a series of filters to choose from will pop up near the bottom of the screen.  Most of them are pretty weird.

Here’s what happened when I tried out a few of Snapchat’s lenses – yikes.

Once you’ve swiped left or right to a lens you want to try, your face will be detected and the filter applied.  Now you’re free to press or hold the camera button to record your snap, and the lens will follow your face throughout.

The feature is just whacky and fun right now, but there may be the opportunity to add cool geo-triggered lenses in the future (“Snapping from your place or work?  Here’s a suit and tie lens!”, etc.).  Come to think of it, maybe a more appropriate lens for snapping from work puts you in a “Slacker” t-shirt – food for thought.