Snapchat Introduces Animated 3D Augmented Reality Bitmoji [VIDEO]
Augmented reality is at the forefront of mobile tech, with companies like Apple making AR a focus for phones and tablets. Snapchat has jumped on the AR bandwagon, introducing animated 3D AR Bitmoji, giving you the chance to plop your animated character into the real world, doing a number of funny and interesting things.
Snapchat bought Bitstrips in the spring of 2016, and re-branded the product as Bitmoji. Usable as a standalone app, as well as within Snapchat, the latest iteration of the animated characters after their initial breakout on Facebook has been a lot of fun on Snapchat and within text messages.
Snapchat recently added animated 3D augmented reality to the tricks Bitmoji know, offering a handful of scenes that include "making it rain", a funny steak eating experience, an awkward water cooler encounter, and others. Like they do with many of their other filters, the available AR Bitmoji filters change from day to day. It makes it kind of exciting to check out each day to see what's available.
If you're wondering how to access the AR Bitmoji, open the app and fire up the camera to create a new snap. Switch to the back camera (the non-selfie camera) on your phone, and access the filters by long-pressing on the screen. The AR filters are mixed in with the rest, so you'll have to swipe through to find the AR ones. Once you find one you like, you can drag your Bitmoji around the scene, and you can move your phone around the character in real-time to capture every angle of what they're up to, just like you see in the video above. Fun, right? Here's to more awesome AR Bitmoji!