Snapchat
Latest
Snapchat’s third-party ‘Mini’ apps are live
Snapchat's first four 'Mini' apps offer meditation, studying and more.
VR time machine helps an inventor relive his past
An inventor has created a VR time machine that lets him relive a given day from his perspective -- so long as he recorded it, at least.
Snapchat releases and then deletes its latest insensitive filter
Snapchat's latest insensitive filter asks users to "smile to break the chains" that once bound slaves.
Snap allows developers to create ‘mini’ apps for Snapchat
Snapchat's "Minis" will let Snapchat users meditate, buy movie tickets and study with friends.
Snapchat redesign highlights the map and original content
Snapchat is once again getting a facelift.
Snapchat adds voice commands so you don't have to search for the right filter
Snapchat is making its camera more powerful with voice search and new Google Lens-like abilities.
Snapchat stops promoting Trump's account due to his tweets
Snap says it won't promote "voices who incite racial violence and injustice."
Snapchat users surge amid coronavirus pandemic
Snapchat has more users than ever.
Snapchat is facing outages in the US and Europe
Much to the woe of teens across the US and Europe, Snapchat is currently down in parts of the world. Snapchat’s Support account tweeted an acknowledgment of the outage at 10:33AM ET but didn’t provide any additional details. It also hasn’t shared an update since.
Snapchat's new lens helps users donate to the WHO’s COVID-19 relief fund
Snapchat’s latest AR filter lets users donate directly to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. With the Snapchat camera, users can scan 23 international currencies in 33 countries. The AR filter will show how donations to the WHO are used for patient care, medical supplies and research.
Snapchat’s new lenses use AR to encourage social distancing
Snapchat's latest set of lenses come with a timely reminder of the importance of social distancing. The app introduced two new lenses, created in collaboration with the World Health Organization, that use augmented reality to serve users with tips on how to stay healthy.
Snapchat users can finally post Stories from other apps
Snapchat is finally opening up Stories to outside apps. Nearly a year after it was first previewed, the company is introducing App Stories, a feature that allows third-party apps to post Stories created in the Snapchat app to their services. First announced at the company's Partner Summit event, App Stories is now available in four apps: Triller, Squad, Hily, and Octi. The company says more apps will adopt App Stories over time, though it's not clear how quickly Snap will be ramping up. (And no word yet on when Stories might show up in Houseparty or Tinder -- two early partners that were teased during last year's Partner Summit.)
Instagram experiments with disappearing text messages
In the future, you may be able to send ephemeral messages through Instagram the way you can on Snapchat. The Facebook-owned platform is working on a disappearing text messaging feature, which clears the chat box whenever you leave it. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong discovered the capability hidden in the Android app's code, while TechCrunch was able to confirm with a Facebook spokesperson that the company is developing the feature.
Snapchat adds mental health tools to ease coronavirus anxiety
Snapchat is updating its app with a set of mental health tools meant to help users combat anxiety and depression. The feature, called "Here For You," was first previewed in February, but the company says it opted to speed up its release in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Snapchat's latest AR filters turn the floor into lava
There have been immersive Snapchat Lenses before, but this latest batch can literally change the world around you. Snap has unveiled "Ground Transformation" Lenses that turn the ground into a lava pit or water -- yes, you can pretend the floor is lava like you're eight years old all over again. Both use machine learning to understand the geometry of the land and help apply special effects, such as reflections from the buildings around you.
Bitmoji TV is a comedy clip series starring your avatar
I stood in front of a panel of judges made up of Randy Jackson, a Simon Cowell-esque man and a friendly blonde woman. I had to do my best to express the emoji "Whatever," in an X Factor-style competition to win the title of "America's best Bitmoji." After an expectant beat, I shrugged nonchalantly. The crowd went wild, the judges fawned over my performance and I took home the crown.
Snapchat will host exclusive NBC Olympics coverage
The 2020 Olympic Summer Games don't commence for six months, but plenty of marketing work goes into the international event well beforehand. NBC, which owns the media rights to the Olympic Games, has renewed its deal with Snap to publish daily coverage of competitions in the US. The two companies have partnered before, with similar deals involving the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2018 Winter Olympics. However, this year's deal ensures far more content: NBC will produce more than 70 episodes for Snapchat -- three times than in 2018, according to Variety.
Snapchat's Bitmoji TV series will make your avatar the star
Snapchat's Bitmoji will soon have a role to play beyond the usual stickers, games and Stories. Snap has previewed a Bitmoji TV series for Discover that will feature the avatars of you and your friends in the leading roles. There will be a steady stream of hijinks, including secret agent missions, becoming zombies and crewing a Star Trek-style spaceship. The series doesn't premiere until February 2020, but you can subscribe to it in advance if you want to give it a try when it does arrive.
Snapchat Cameos lets you insert your face into a GIF
Snapchat's secret weapon is its uncanny face-swapping and -tracking algorithms, and it has just deployed those to great effect in a new chat feature called Cameos. The feature, which leaked out yesterday, inserts your selfie into short, looping videos featuring cats, shopping carts, cars and more. The idea is to send your pals an expressive GIF, starring... you.
Snapchat's Cameo test slips your face into GIFs
GIFs are great for conveying your reactions, but they're not usually very personal -- and recording yourself probably won't be that exciting. Snap might have found a way to bridge those two worlds. The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it's testing a Cameo feature which inserts your face into a selection of (currently pre-made) GIFs. You just take a selfie, pick a generic body type and your face will animate as if it were you, including mouth movements. Think of it like a deepfake, but this time friendly instead of creepy.
