For many parents, summer was supposed to be about ice creams and visiting the zoo with their kids, or finally, setting off on that family safari. Instead, now they are stuck at home, thinking up ways to engage the children. Even if they can't step out, Indian parents have been bringing home tigers, pandas, crocodiles and other wild animals with Google's 3D augmented reality (AR) feature. According to Google Trends, though the feature debuted in 2019, there's been a spike in searches for 'Google 3D animals' in India since March-end. All you need is a smartphone and a steady Internet connection to turn the house into a virtual jungle. Kandivali-based private sector professional Prashanth Pereira, who brought in his five-year-old son's birthday with a few 3D four-legged friends, tells us what they liked.

Engage with the family
You can access the feature by typing the name of the animal in the Google Chrome app in an Android phone and in the Google Chrome browser in iPhone. Pereira says that although it took some time for him to get used to the feature, his son, a junior KG student, took to it instantly. "Vikrant was getting birthday calls, but he was too consumed by his new friends." The 49-year-old adds that it was one of the most engaging activities they had indulged in since the lockdown started. "The family can bond over it. You can increase the size and change the position to surprise each other or tell stories," he says.