during the family photo madness that is the holiday season, pixel owners will soon be able to drop a fleet of stormtroopers next to grandma. google is releasing their AR stickers this week to all pixel phones running android 8.1 oreo.

 

AR stickers
the stickers are realistic and interactive
all images courtesy of google

 

 

whether bringing a favorite story to life, or making christmas eve a little more manageable, users will be able to enjoy star wars/netflix marketing in a whole new way. watch stranger thing’s eleven chew on a waffle; surround yourself with AR balloons and champagne; evaluate porg and its relevance in the star wars universe. the stickers have the potential to become another intrusive form of marketing, but at the moment, they appear harmless, optional, and even hilarious at times. they make sounds, jump around, attempt to communicate with the user –– one may wonder, are you sucking the characters into your story, or are the characters bringing you into theirs?

 

AR stickers
herds of porg can now distract users from the mundane

 

 

they’re easy enough to hangout with. open the camera, switch to AR sticker mode, choose a favorite sticker pack and plop them right into the landscape. they’re surprisingly realistic, enjoyably distracting and at the user’s full creative disposal. move them. resize them. they don’t mind. eleven will continue chewing on her waffle; porg will continue being porg; the stickers will interact with real-life friends, and when the photos have been taken and the fun is all over, the few pixel users who have yet to do so, may finally get around to subscribing to netflix.

 

 

here’s a live example of the stickers in action, featuring the cast of stranger things 

 

AR stickers
this stranger things character needs your help