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Snapchat’s new lenses for dogs will make your mutt the star of Christmas

Dog Lenses | Now on Snapchat

Snapchat’s latest feature is aimed squarely at dog owners, and it looks like it’s going to be a big hit.

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While we’re pretty certain you’ve attempted at one time or another to use Snapchat’s lenses on your mutt, the app’s failure to recognize a face means your efforts may well have been mixed.

But just in time for Christmas, Snapchat has launched “Dog Lenses.” Fun for all the family, though potentially humiliating for your put-upon pooch, you can now place a pair of specs on your four-legged friend, or have a blue butterfly fluttering on its nose. Heck, you can even put a pizza on its head. And don’t forget the Christmas-themed lens, too, that transforms your dog into a cute-looking reindeer (sort of).

If you squeeze your own mug into the shot for a dog-and-owner selfie, the lens will apply some wacky overlays to your face, too, which should help to make your beloved pet feel a little less daft.

So if your Christmas party requires a burst of energy and there’s a dog in the house, then pull out your smartphone, fire up Snapchat, and entertain everyone with a bunch of silly dog snaps.

The rollout of lenses for dogs comes just a couple of months after Snapchat launched the same feature for cats.

The pet filters follow the company’s promise to further develop the computer vision technology that it weaved into the social media app last year.

It gives Snapchat the smarts to recognize different objects in a photo and offer relevant stickers to jazz it up. The moment it’s able to lock on to the content of an image — whether it contains a human face or that of a dog or cat, or even food, sports, and beaches — the stickers automatically show up.

So a picture of a pet, for example, could produce one showing the words, “It’s a pawty,” while a photo of a tasty dessert or some other dish might produce a sticker saying, “What diet?”

If you’re new to Snapchat and looking for some tips on how to get up and running with it, then take a moment to check out Digital Trends’ handy guide.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
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