Newsletter 
In short: Google has announced that “Playground” is coming to the Pixel 3, and with Google Lens, users will be able to experience a whole new world. Playground is essentially AR Stickers that you can put on the camera, and get some pretty cool features. It’s a “new” mode in the Pixel 3’s camera that is going to include a slew of different stickers. This includes some from Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Stranger Things. Playground will bring more powerful AR experiences, and will also use AI to recommend content that you can use to express yourself in the moment. You can also make these photos come to like with Playmoji, which are similar to the animated stickers that are found in Gboard.
Background: Google introduced AR Stickers with the Pixel 2 last year, which lived inside the camera app. These were exclusive to the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL for quite a while and it allowed you to bring different things into your pictures, like characters from Star Wars and much more. Now it appears that Google is rebranding this feature as the “Playground” which does sound a bit better, as it is really a playground, when you are adding these AR stickers into your shot. It will also appeal more to those normal users.
Impact: Currently, the Playground is only going to be available on the Pixel 3, but it will be coming to other Pixel smartphones in the next month or so. Google does make it pretty easy to share pictures and videos taken with different stickers in the Playground. Once you snap the shot, it is saved as a normal photo or video, which you can then share elsewhere. Whether that is to Facebook, Twitter or another social media website. You can even share them via messaging apps if you wish to do so.