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Snapchat’s Gender Swap AR Face Filter Is A Big Hit

Imagining yourself as the opposite sex is as simple as taking a Snap.

Snapchat unleashed their new AR gender swap face filter over the weekend, and the internet has been thrown into a tizzy as users reimagine themselves, their friends—pretty much any image of a face they can get their hands on—as the opposite sex.

In some cases, the AR filter—available now in your face filter carousal—has been giving users some surprising results, many of which so realistic it’s difficult to tell which is real and which is AR. Instagram user Mark Valdez used the face filter and discovered he looks exactly like Anne Hathaway, while model Chris Perry posted a video of his girlfriend using the filter only to discover her male counterpart actually bears a striking resemblance to him.

https://twitter.com/ChrisGQPerry1/status/1127267952498237448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeed.com%2Fryanschocket2%2Fpeople-are-really-up-to-no-good-with-this-new-snapchat

Even celebrities are getting in on the fun, with Miley Cyrus posting her own gender-swap photo that had her looking like a combination of Justin Beiber and her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus.

Some websites are taking the filter even further, using images of popular actors and celebrities to see what their favorite movie stars look like as the opposite sex. Ruinmyweek.com went so far as to put the cast of Game of Thrones through the filter, resulting in some truly odd results.

To access the filter and join in on the fun, just open up your Snapchat app in selfie mode, and swipe right a couple of times to find the male and female filter. The male filter will give you a little stubble and more masculine jawline, while the female filter gives you long hair and a more delicate facial structure.

So many people have been sharing their gender swap Snaps over the weekend that it became the center of conversation on a lot of the Monday morning talk shows.

Image Credit: Elvis Duran in the Morning

During the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show—currently the number one nationally syndicated radio show—team member Gandhi talked about how Snapchat’s new gender-swap filter had old friends of hers Snapping again, saying, “What I think is really interesting too about all of this is that everyone saying Snapchat is over, but then all of a sudden this filter comes out and you realize that Snapchat is maybe not over, everyone still has it and is using it.”

Show host Elvis Duran even talked about how he hasn’t used Snapchat’s filters for some time, but after discovering the filter has found a new appreciation for the social app.

Interestingly, the face filter is also being used for various types of social experiments. Some male users are using the filter to create fake Tinder accounts to see what it’s really like to be a woman on a dating app.

Image Credit: 7spies.com

Garrett Mumford was one male user who created a fake Tinder account for this exact purpose. After making the rounds on the popular dating platform, he posted a screenshot on Twitter of his phone being flooded with notifications from Tinder, stating, “holy f*ck did I make a mistake.”

Meanwhile, some users are using their gender swap Snaps for slightly shadier purposes, such as catching their partners cheating and even pranking loved ones. But it’s creating a lot of attention for the once-shrinking app, and that’s great news for Snapchat.

Image Credit: Ruinmyweek.com

Snapchat is available for free on iOS and Android, and if you don’t see the gender swap filter right away, just sit tight. Snapchat filters are on constant rotation, meaning some of you may see it now, while others may see it later. However, with the filter generating such widespread attention, Snapchat will most likely want to get this into the hands of its users as soon as possible.

About the Scout

Bobby Carlton

Hello, my name is Bobby Carlton. When I'm not exploring the world of immersive technology, I'm writing rock songs about lost love. I'd also like to mention that I can do 25 push-ups in a row.

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