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TechSnapchat

Snapchat’s Lenses Aren’t Just for Human Faces Anymore

By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
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By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
November 8, 2016, 4:25 PM ET
Illustrations Of Popular Mobile Apps And Social Media Sites
A woman takes a photograph with a camera whilst standing against an illuminated wall bearing Snapchat Inc.'s logo in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. Snapchat Inc. develops mobile communication applications that allows the user to send and receive photos, drawings, text, or videos that will only last for an allotted amount of time. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhotograph by Chris Ratcliffe—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Snapchat is taking its popular “lenses” feature beyond our faces.

On Tuesday, the ephemeral messaging app rolled out a new update that includes what it calls “world lenses,” a take on its popular feature that lets users decorate their photos and videos with animated overlays. While the original lenses focused on the user’s face, they now come with a few options to decorate the entire photo or video, not just a person’s face.

For example, users can now can add some snowflakes to a photo of a cold office, or sprinkle some pink hearts on an image of friends at a party. To access the feature, users need to open the Snapchat app to its camera screen, then tap in the middle of the screen to activate the lenses and pick one.

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Snapchat first introduced these animated lenses for selfies in September 2015. It has since added the ability for advertisers to pay thousands of dollars to sponsor a lens.

As part of the app update, Snapchat also added the ability to flip back through a Story, which is a collection of photos and videos that last 24 hours. Instagram, which recently released a similar feature to Stories, already has this capability, as tech new site The Verge points out.

Founded in 2011, Snapchat first exploded as a popular app for teens weary of permanent social networks like Facebook haunting them later in life. Since then, the company has been adding new features like its lenses, location-based filters, Stories, and Discover, which is a hub in its app where users can browse bite-size news articles. Last month, it announced that it is changing its name to Snap Inc. as it prepares to debut its second product, a pair of connected sunglasses for recording short video clips.

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By Kia Kokalitcheva
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