Snapchat lenses just got a lot better, if you have an iPhone X
Attention iPhone X owners: Snapchat is finally making good on its promise to make its augmented reality selfie lenses better.
Today, the company is officially launching a new lineup of lenses that've been optimized for the iPhone X's front-facing TrueDepth camera.
First previewed last fall during Apple's iPhone X launch event, Snap specially designed the lenses to take advantage of the face-tracking abilities of the iPhone X's TrueDepth camera. What this means for you, a selfie-obsessed Snapchat user, is that the new lenses will be better able to "stick" to your face, making them look slightly more realistic (or, as "realistic" as a brightly-colored mask can look, anyway).
Lenses will also be able to dynamically change based on the lighting around you (you may see shadows, for example) and lenses that have background elements will also look better.
Those may sound like relatively subtle changes, but they should result in a better experience for users.
Notably, not all of Snapchat's lenses are iPhone X-ready. The company is starting with three new lenses (two of which you can see above) and says it plans to add more in the future.
Sadly, there's no way for iPhone X owners to tell which lenses are iPhone X-optimized and which are the "normal" ones just by looking at the carousel. But if the new lenses are as good as Snap has claimed, it should be obvious once you start trying them out.
Topics Augmented Reality iPhone Snapchat
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
