SAN JOSE, Calif.,—A picture might be worth a thousand words, but a self-portrait with 3D filters that attach to your face is presumably worth a lot more than that to Facebook and Snap, the makers of Snapchat.
Both companies introduced new camera filters on Tuesday that will let users express themselves in photos and videos using the latest augmented reality techniques. Facebook's version, which the company unveiled at its f8 developers conference here, is a work in progress: it relies mainly on third-party developers to come up with their own designs and filters using the new Camera Effects platform.
The platform will allow developers to design frames that can be added to a user's profile picture or photos and videos taken with the Facebook camera, which is available in the Messenger and main Facebook apps. Via an "AR studio" (pictured above), the Camera Effects platform will also let developers create masks and scripted effects that react to movement in Live Videos. For example, you could soon be able to film your dog playing fetch and add an animated dog that follows him around in the video.
The features are very similar to the new Snapchat 3D World Lenses, which let you alter the world depicted in your video by adding suddenly appearing rainbows, for instance. This isn't the first time Facebook has copied Snap, but Camera Effects isn't an exact Snapchat clone, either: since the implementation of Facebook's camera effects is up to third-party developers, we could soon see a huge variety of options for filters that track your face and body using augmented reality.
A few developers have had early access to Camera Effects, including Giphy, which designed a thought bubble that can hover above your head while you're filming yourself to let your friends know what you're thinking. If you don't like the first GIF that appears in the bubble, you can shake your head to chose a different one. And it works on pets, too: point the camera at your dog to finally see what he's thinking during that game of fetch.
Addressing developers on stage here, Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg said he once thought of futuristic eyeglasses as the way most people would experience augmented reality, but he now believes "realistic 3D objects" created via smartphone cameras will be AR's future. Snap, of course, would beg to differ: its popular Snapchat Spectacles were one of last year's most popular—and hard to find—gadgets.
Also at f8 today, Facebook showed off the new Spaces app, the company's latest offering for people who want to share photos and videos with their friends online.