Summer and sports seems to go together, like strawberries and cream. In 2018 not only is the football World Cup ongoing, but the ultimate Tennis tournament of Wimbledon has also just begun. To celebrate he start of this major sporting event, Snapchat is serving the opportunity to compete against Tennis Champion Serena Williams by using the power of augmented reality (AR).
Snapchat users will be able to use their 3D Bitmoji avatars t launch an AR game of Tennis, where their opponent will be none other than a 3D bitmoji representation of the famous Tennis star Serena Williams.
The AR battle against Williams is part of Snapchat’s first celebrity partnership for an interactive 3D bitmoji lens. In order to play, Snapchat users will need to link their Bitmoji accounts with Snapchat.
Once the accounts are linked, players can set up their virtual court and hit ‘play’ to begin. Williams will open with a serve, and players can move their cartoon-esque avatars to the correct location in order to swing the racquet and smack the ball back across the net. By setting up a volley, its possible to rack up to four stars, with the speed increasing with each level.
“Starting today, everyone can play tennis against Serena Williams…on Snapchat,” tweeted John Brennan, head of global sports partnerships at Snap, Inc. “Tap on the front-facing camera to activate an interactive 3D Bitmoji Lens and see how many points you can score against the GOAT.”
Snapchat have been devoting a great deal of energy towards AR, offering their face lenses and world lenses up for consumers to design, modify and share, as well as professional partnerships which have injected AR into big sporting events such as the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the SuperBowl.
For future coverage of AR in sports and other industries and area,s keep checking back with VRFocus.