Snapchat said to be developing more advanced Lenses feature for real-world object recognition

Snapchat has become known for its innovative Lenses feature that recognizes faces and then applies filters, emoji, and effects to them. Now, The Information reports that Snap is working on further expanding its Lenses feature with augmented reality-like support for recognizing landscapes and objects with the rear-camera…

According to the report, the feature would be similar to how Lenses is currently implemented, but would recognize real-world landscapes and objects. From there, the feature couple apply effects and more to that landscape or object.

The feature is an advancement of the World Lenses feature that Snap introduced last year. This feature is relatively basic in terms of implementation, overlaying effects such as snowfall and leaves to images from the rear-camera. The Lenses feature that applies to the front camera is far more advanced, recognizing faces and smaller attributes like when eyebrows are raised or when eyes are moved.

The advanced Lenses feature is being developed by Snap Labs, the company’s division led by co-founder Bobby Murphy that has been responsible for other “computer vision” driven technology.

As with most of Snapchat’s features, smarter Lenses would benefit both users and advertisers alike. For instance, today’s report points to how the ability to recognize something as specific as the brand of car would be huge for advertisers.

As for a release, the smarter Lenses feature is reportedly not in the company’s near-term roadmap, but is something it is working towards releasing. The feature, like most new Snapchat capabilities, would come to users first and later open up to advertisers.

As Snap prepares to go public in the coming weeks, it is facing increased pressure from potential investors to introduce new features that benefit both users and advertisers. With increased competition from Facebook and Instagram’s Stories feature, which has more advanced advertising support, investors are calling on Snap to prove that they’re worth the reported $25 billion valuation.

Snapchat for iOS was recently updated with support for creating a Snapcode for any website:

Open Settings to create a Snapcode for any website! When friends Snap it, they’ll see an option to open the website inside Snapchat.

Apple is said to be working on advanced augmented reality features for its Camera app on iOS and while they will likely be more advanced than these, Snap is slowly priming the iOS user-base for the future of augmented reality.

What do you think of Snap’s Lenses feature? Are you an active user? Let us known the comments.