AR Snapshots: Fire Off These Snapchat AR Lenses Instead of Fireworks for the Fourth of July

The Fourth of July, the celebration of US independence, as well as the second paid holiday of the summer, has arrived.

If you're vaccinated, you're probably planning to commemorate the occasion much differently than last year. However, if you're still playing it safe, you can still celebrate the Fourth of July with safety and social distancing via these AR Lenses from Snapchat...

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Dress Up in Virtual Patriotic Costumes

Whether or not you plan to celebrate the Fourth in person, you may still lack the requisite red, white, and blue attire to truly display your patriotism. Never fear, Snapchat is here!

The Happy Fourth of July Lens projects virtual stars onto the background and foreground of your front-facing camera view, along with patriotic virtual makeup that reacts to your facial movements and a virtual costume on your torso.

For an even weirder take, try the Independence Day Lens. This Lens replaces your eyes and lips with hand-drawn stars and stripes patterns that react to your facial movements while overlaying a transparent flag image over the camera view.

For a more conservative effect, the Fourth of July Lens places an absurdly large stars and stripes top hat on your head with a celebratory border.

Add Virtual Fireworks to Your Selfies

Besides patterns of red, white, and blue, nothing symbolizes the Fourth of July better than fireworks.

Luckily, Snapchat has several Lenses available to virtual fireworks to your front-facing camera content. The Fireworks Lens places a halo of sparkles over faces it detects in the camera view. In addition, the Lens projects virtual fireworks over the background of your scene.

For a different take on the experience, we also have the Flag and Fireworks Lens. While this one doesn't have face effects, it does project fireworks over your background, adding explosive patterns of the US flag within heart shapes.

Shoot AR Fireworks into the Sky

We've covered the virtual rocket's red glare, but what about the bombs bursting in air? For a different angle on augmented reality fireworks, give the Fireworks Sky Lens a shot.

This AR experience takes place in the rear-facing camera. Using Snapchat's sky segmentation technology, the Lens is able to locate the horizon in your camera view and project virtual fireworks over just the upper portion of the screen, giving the appearance that fireworks are actually popping off in the sky.

Real talk here, folks. I know we really love to shoot off fireworks for the Fourth of July, but, for the sake of our four-legged friends who don't enjoy loud noises, maybe we should consider some virtual fireworks instead?

Bring Captain America to Your Cookout

For Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, there's no better mascot for the Fourth of July than Captain America. Heck, even if you're not too big into comics, Steve Rogers did punch Adolph Hitler in the face.

If you search for "Captain America," you'll find a plethora of options. Unfortunately, most of them are pretty bad. There is one standout though. This Captain America Lens projects a 3D model of the character into your environment via the rear-facing camera. Tap the screen, and he does a backflip!

For more Captain America AR fun, try out the Falcon and the Winter Soldier experience via the Disney Insider app. Or, if you have a Google Pixel, try out the Avengers Playmoji pack for Playground.

Simulate a Tropical Getaway

So, this one doesn't really have anything to do with the Fourth of July. But, now that people are out and traveling, perhaps you're feeling a little jealous if you haven't taken advantage of the three-day weekend and booked a trip to the tropics.

Instead, try out the Parrot Lens. This Lens places a virtual pair of sunglasses on your face and a fairly realistic AR parrot on your shoulder.

Yeah, the virtual sunglasses thing has been done before, but the parrot is too cute not to invite into your selfies.