Brands have been encouraged by Snapchat’s first forays into basic augmented reality (AR) – those filters that allow users to face swap and animate their mugs with all manner of cartoony attributes. Snapchat may have began in 2011 as a disposable, privacy-minded messenger app. But Gatorade, for example, invested in one such branded lens for the Super Bowl that was used about 160 million times during its brief lifespan.
But rumours have been swirling for a while now that the app maker would actually build hardware for its AR endeavours. The leaked Sony emails showed the company had secretly acquired a company that makes AR eyeware. Observers noted the hiring of AR experts. But things really kicked off when it was revealed Monday that the company had joined the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, to which only hardware developers can belong.
The augmented reality (the overlaying of interactive digital elements on the real world, most often through a smartphone) market is projected by some to reach US$117.4 billion in the next six years. Is this the future of the one-time secret message app that won over teens’ hearts?
Tim Bradshaw and Hannah Kuchler in FT.com
“Reports that Snapchat was developing a wearable device first emerged in March, when tech news site CNET reported that people from Nokia and Logitech with expertise building hardware had joined a secret research and development lab. The fast-growing company, which is valued at more than $15bn and counts Fidelity among its investors, has never commented on any hardware plans, but joining the Bluetooth consortium is a clear signal of intent.”
Read more at FT.com
Mark Racette in Medium
“Since the beginning, users have had the option to wield a simple color palette to decorate or annotate (Snapchat) messages before sending them. It’s the Kid Pix of AR, but it still fits the bill, right? Plus — let’s not forget that we went from Kid Pix in “computer class” to Photoshop on the iPad, synced to the cloud. Most importantly it differentiates the service from other messaging platforms and gives Snapchat a distinct character. Nobody else thought to add this brilliantly quirky feature.”
Read more at Medium
Chris Mills from BGR
The real question is: why? There exists an already-cautionary tale about a software company that tried to make AR glasses happen. But at least Google Glass made some kind of sense: Google’s founding principle is to help people understand, organize and interact with the world around them. Snapchat’s founding principle is, uh, selfies and funny filters? It doesn’t transfer quite as well to a set of AR glasses as Google’s services did to Google Glass. There’s no denying that Snapchat is good at augmented reality, but it’s not really useful augmented reality. Sure, it’s good at detecting and modifying faces, but I’m not really sure why that’s a useful skill to have attached to your face. Making hardware is going through a trend phase, mostly since Apple is raking in the cash on iPhones, and the days of app startups are over.”
Read more at BGR
