Snapchat Brings Custom Landmarkers to Let Creators Anchor AR Experiences to Their Favourite Places

Snapchat on Wednesday announced the expansion of its augmented reality (AR) focused feature Landmarkers that will now be available to all as Custom Landmarkers through Lens Studio. Custom Landmakers will allow creators on the platform to develop AR filters — known as Lenses —that can be anchored to local places and allow Snapchatters to create richer stories about those places. To begin with the new experience, Snapchat has introduced its first ever Custom Indian Landmarker Lens that has been created for ice-cream brand Havmor.

As teased in December, Custom Landmarkers allow creators to develop Lenses for their favourite local landmarks — from statues to storefronts — using their mobile devices with a LiDAR sensor. Creators need to map the area and create its 3D model to bring it to Lens Studio.

Custom Landmarker Lenses can be activated for sharing with a group of friends or a wider community to highlight a particular place.

Snap Lens Network's Pradeepa Anandhi has leveraged the latest update to create the Custom Landmarker of Havmor in partnership with Snap official lens creator Bharat Nagarajan.

Named The Havmor Paradise Custom Landmarker Lens, the new Landmarker features an interactive dancing cow. It also shows the Havmor ice-cream virtual banner on the outlet in the background and features larger than life ice-cream cones.

Snapchat has started showing the Havmor Landmarker Lens
Photo Credit: Snap

Users can experience the Custom Havmor Landmarker Lens by simply scanning the Snap code at any of their nearby ice-cream outlets.

“We built this Ice-cream paradise lens on top of Snapchat's custom Landmarker technology. This lens completely transforms the outlet into an ice cream fairyland,” said Anandhi.

She started experimenting with Lens Studio's Custom Landmarker Lens feature along with Bharat a few months ago.

Snapchat claims that more than 200 million users engage with AR every day on an average. The platform is aiming to take its AR experiences to new levels by bringing features including the new Custom Landmarkers.

The Landmarkers feature was initially launched back in April 2019 as a native offering to superimpose AR experiences on top of popular architectures. It debuted in India few months after its global debut by offering AR filters for users visiting Gateway of India and Taj Mahal.