Snapchat’s latest augmented reality feature lets you paint the sky with new filters

Chance Miller | Sep 25 2017 - 4:47 pm PT

Snapchat’s focus on augmented reality is continuing with its latest iOS app update. The company today announced a new feature called “Sky Filters” that uses augmented reality to paint the sky in your photo a totally different color…

The company says that Sky Filters work by recognizing the sky in a photo and prompting users to choose from a new “forecast,” such as a starry night, stormy clouds, beautiful sunsets, rainbow, and more.

To access the filters, simply take a photo with at least part of the sky visible and swipe to the left to watch the sky transform. The end result here is pretty cool as it can take any sky and turn it into a beautiful canvas. As you can see in the images above, the generic looking original image can be completely transformed.

Today’s update is the latest in Snap’s increasing focus on augmented reality. The company has been working to market itself more as a camera company than a simple social network. Over the past year, Snapchat has added things such as more advanced Lenses, animated Bitmoji, motion tracking stickers, and more.

Most recently, Snapchat introduced a new ‘Crowd Surf’ feature that takes multiple videos and clips from live events such as concerts and stitches them together for one long video. Like much of its recent feature additions, this is powered by artificial intelligence.

As with a lot of Snapchat features, the Sky Filters that are available will rotate daily as a way for the company to encourage users to check back every day.

Snapchat is available on the App Store for free.