The social network also makes more people able to use its AR Studio platform so that more augmented-reality content can be put on Facebook.
Facebook is making big changes to its services to add more augmented reality.
Augmented reality, or AR, is a technology that lets people put virtual images on top of real-world images. It’s what Snapchat and Instagram use to give you digital sunglasses or dog ears.
Tuesday, the social network announced that its Messenger chat app will get a new feature called “World Effects.” With this feature, you can add 3D objects that you can interact with, like a heart over someone’s head or a robot that plays music, to your photos or videos.
Facebook also said that its AR Studios platform, which was first announced in April at its F8 developer conference, will now be available to everyone. Users can create AR content for Facebook with the set of tools. At first, about 2,000 brands, publishers, and artists were the only ones who could use AR Studios.
Google and Apple, which are competitors, are also putting more money into AR. Apple announced earlier this year that developers can use a platform called ARKit to make AR apps for iPhones. Google did the same thing in August when it came out with ARCore, its own platform for Android phones.
This isn’t the only money that Facebook has put into augmented reality. On its corporate campus in Menlo Park, California, the company set up a piece of art that uses augmented reality. Heather Day, an artist from San Francisco, worked with the company to make a digital mural that can only be seen through a special app on your phone.
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