https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/12/16767664/facebook-messenger-world-effects-augmented-reality-developers

Facebook today announced a new suite of augmented reality tools for Messenger the company is calling “world effects,” which basically let users drop real-time 3D objects into photos or videos within the camera frame. The technology builds on Facebook’s existing AR features, like the ability to add filters and masks to your face in a selfie, and it’s designed to make Messenger more interactive by leveraging the increasingly sophisticated computer vision capabilities of smartphones. The first set of world effects include a floating heart, an arrow, and a 3D robot and unicorn, as well as word bubbles with predetermined messages like “love,” “heart,” and “miss you.”

The idea is to make Messenger as playful and multifaceted as possible, so it can stay competitive with Snapchat and, Facebook hopes, lure away some of Snap’s younger user base. Snapchat launched a version of this product back in April, calling it world lenses. But Facebook says it’s just getting started. The company first launched its AR platform eight months ago at the F8 developers conference, where it teased a vision for the world in which every object can be identified and by a smartphone camera in real time, similar to Google’s existing Lens feature, but also augmented using object recognition and 3D animation. A real coffee cup can be recorded showing a virtual wave of steam, for instance.