Facebook Stories will now add Instagram’s Boomerang feature and AR drawings

Facebook has just added Instagram’s Boomerang feature in its Stories feature allowing users to create looping GIFs. [caption id=“attachment_4399851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Facebook is in deep trouble over the privacy breach. Reuters.[/caption] The company has also added AR drawings to the Stories section allowing users to draw doodles in 3D. The addition of these extra creativity options could be an attempt to make the Facebook camera, a more popular place for content creators while trying to compete with the competition. According to a report by Elite Daily, John Barnett, Facebook Camera Product Manager added, “We wanted to give people an easy way to create with augmented reality and draw in the world around them.” The report also pointed out that AR drawing will be known as “3D drawing” and will roll out for Facebook users in coming weeks. If you are not familiar with 3D drawing then this allows you to scribble a message or a graffiti and then move the camera around to see that the markings or the elements of the graffiti stay in place as the camera moves. [caption id=“attachment_4429851” align=“alignnone” width=“768”] Instagram 3D drawing. Facebook[/caption] The company has only added pastel gradient colours as part of the feature and it could add additional brushes in the future. According to the report, the camera now understands and detects the objects and surfaces in the room including walls and tables to create a 3D spec to wrap the drawing on them. For optimal effect, it only wraps drawings around objects if it is confident about the object that it has detected. The chances of proper detection depend on the amount of information that the camera captures for an object, which in turn depends on the light available in the environment as pointed in the report. This is not the first time that Facebook is experimenting with AR. Previously, the company revealed its AR effects back at F8 last year. Facebook also launched AR tracker target experiences which would trigger from QR codes or real-world posters. Moving on to Boomerang, Facebook had initially launched looping GIF creations almost a year back but the option did not take off. It has now opted to use the established name of “Boomerang” so that people know what the feature does. This comes right after **Facebook’s attempts at making Stories** more popular for its users.