Forget filters, Snapchat is going to teach you Hindi now

To mark World Hindi Day, Snapchat has a special ‘Learn Hindi’ lens that uses augmented reality to teach you Hindi.

The ‘Learn Hindi’ lens uses Augmented Reality and machine learning to recognixe objects and translate their names into Hindi in real-time. (Snapchat)

Snapchat is celebrating Vishwa Hindi Divas, or World Hindi Day, to commemorate the anniversary of the first World Hindi Conference that was held in Nagpur on January 10, 1975. The conference saw 122 delegates from 30 countries participate in flagging off a global attempt to promote Hindi language worldwide.

This year, Snapchat is marking the day with a ‘Learn Hindi' lens that has been designed by Atit Kharel who is an Official Lens Creator at Snap. Kharel is a digital creator from Nepal who uses augmented reality (AR) on Snap's Lens Studio. Kharel is himself passionate about learning the language and decided to create a lens that allows others to also get acquainted with it.

The ‘Learn Hindi' lens uses Augmented Reality and machine learning to recognixe objects and translate their names into Hindi in real-time.

All Snapchatters have to do is to point their cameras at an object to scan it, and the lens will automatically display the English and Hindi names, along with a phonetic transcription of the word to help with pronunciation.

The lens can identify 1,000 different objects and translate their names to Hindi allowing Snapchatters to learn the language, one word at a time.

“The idea behind launching the lens was to make learning Hindi fun and easy - especially for new learners. I was always fascinated by Augmented Reality and Snapchat lenses. I knew about Lens Studio right after its release and wanted to try to create something useful and came up with the idea of a lens that helps you earn Hindi. It's really easy to use and extremely handy,” Kharel said.

You can find the lens on Snapchat by searching “Learn Hindi”. Happy learning!