• On the occasion of Women's Rights Day, Snapchat launches in eight cities of France an exclusive filter to honor so many illustrious women.
  • Thanks to augmented reality, the virtual statues of Simone Veil, Olympe de Gouges or Joséphine Baker will appear alongside statues - very real - of Charles de Gaulle, Montesquieu or Jean Moulin.
  • This innovation was implemented by Snapchat's AR Studio, which wants to "democratize culture" with augmented reality.

Simone Veil, Simone de Beauvoir, Françoise de Graffigny, Hubertine Auclert, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Joséphine Baker, Olympe de Gouges... So many famous women who remain under-represented in the public space. For International Women's Day on March 8, Snapchat wanted to end injustice. The application has decided to create augmented reality filters to offer its users to discover eight virtual statues of women who have marked history.

How does it work? Just go near real statues of famous men, only one defined in advance in each selected city. In Lyon, for example, it will be that of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry installed Place Bellecour. By brandishing their phone, users will be able to see on the screen the statue of Simone de Beauvoir, as it could have been made.

10% of women represented in public spaces

"Female figures, which are often allegories, represent about 10% of the statues in public spaces in France," explains Donatien Bozon, director of Snap AR Studio, for whom augmented reality makes it possible to temporarily rectify the situation.

Snapchat doesn't just produce "filters with dog ears," he insists. The application is also intended to change things: "Subsequently, we could also offer time returns by building a route that would compare photos of current streets with photos of yesteryear," he continues.

This operation, which required three months of work, also serves as a showcase for Snap AR Studio, opened last September in Paris. The objective is twofold: to develop augmented reality on behalf of the application and to train future specialists in this technology.

According to Snapchat, 250 million people use augmented reality filters daily. In total, this amounts to nearly six billion filters that are generated every day.

  • Lyon
  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
  • Rhône-Alpes
  • Snapchat
  • Women's Rights Day
  • Women's rights
  • Gender equality
  • Wife
  • Entertainment
  • Culture