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Snapchat's Snap Camera brings dog ears and other Lenses to your computer

You don't need your phone (or a Snapchat account) to have fun with Snap's Lenses.

Gordon Gottsegen CNET contributor
Gordon Gottsegen is a tech writer who has experience working at publications like Wired. He loves testing out new gadgets and complaining about them. He is the ghost of all failed Kickstarters.
Gordon Gottsegen

Lenses are arguably the most fun part of Snapchat . It's hard not to smile when you turn on your selfie cam and see dog ears, rainbow vomit or your face distorted to the extreme. Now, Snapchat maker Snap is letting people use its Lenses without their phones or even a Snapchat account.

On Friday, Snap unveiled its Snap Camera standalone desktop app. Snap Camera lets you use Snapchat Lenses on your computer with any connected or built-in camera. With thousands of Lenses to choose from, it's a lot like Apple's Photo Booth app on steroids. 

And it's not just for taking funny pictures or videos to save to your computer. You can select the Snap Camera feed as your camera output to use Lenses with third-party desktop apps. That means you can pick a Lens to use while video chatting via Skype or Google Hangouts . Or you can record a YouTube video with a Lens on. 

Snap also announced that it's partnering with Twitch to let streamers use Snapchat Lenses during their livestreams, and it's giving Twitch streamers and viewers access to custom Twitch Lenses.

Snap says you don't need a Snapchat account to use Snap Camera on desktop. To give Snap Camera a spin, you can download it at snapcamera.snapchat.com.

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