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Snapchat releases political ad spending data ahead of 2020 election
Snapchat joins other social media giants in ramping up transparency efforts ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. The company has released a library of all the political and issue-based ad campaigns it has displayed on its app. The downloadable spreadsheets -- for both 2018 and 2019 -- includes detailed information on who paid for the ads and the demographic they aimed to target.
Snapchat is Spotify's latest music-sharing option
Spotify addicts can soon share what tunes or podcasts they're listening to with their Snapchat friends. Through the share menu on songs, albums, playlists, artist profiles and podcasts, you'll be able to post whatever's grabbing your attention to Snapchat and Snapchat Stories if you have the latter app installed.
NFL celebrates 100th season with Snapchat AR Lens that comes to life
The National Football League and Snap have made another augmented reality experience together. In celebration of the NFL's 100th season, which kicks off on September 5th, the companies are unveiling an AR Lens that lets people scan an NFL 100 logo and bring it to life inside the Snapchat app. The feature uses Snap's Marker technology, introduced in 2018, to let people use their Snapchat camera to unlock a special video created by the NFL. After scanning an NFL 100 logo, the video will show historic highlights between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, the two teams that are playing the first game of the 2019-2020 season next Thursday. And right beneath the video, as pictured above, there's a clock counting down the days, hours and minutes to the beginning of the NFL 100 season.
Instagram tests 'Threads' app with automatic updates for close friends
Facebook is reportedly working on a standalone companion messaging app for Instagram. The Verge reported today that the app, which will be called Threads, appears to mimic many of Snapchat's most popular features. The new app is designed to be used with your "close friends list" on Instagram and would allow users to share details like location, speed and battery life. Users will also have Instagram's full suite of creative tools at their disposal, including text, photo and video messages.
Recommended Reading: Taylor Swift and Spotify are... best friends?
Taylor Swift is getting friendly with Spotify ahead of her new album, 'Lover.' Times have changed. Tim Ingham, Music Business Worldwide Not too long ago, Taylor Swift shook off Spotify, pulling her entire catalog from the service and slamming music streaming as "a grand experiment." Nearly five years later, amid a huge blow up with her former label, she's mighty cozy with the Sweden-based company that went public in 2018. It looks like the two sides have put aside their bad blood -- for now.
iHeartRadio shares tunes as Stories in Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat
Do you really, really want to be sure everyone knows what you're listening to? iHeartRadio thinks it can help spread your musical message. The company has introduced sharing to Stories in Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat through its mobile app -- iHeartRadio claimed to Engadget that it's the first streaming service to tie into all three. Whether or not that's true, it's certainly a time-saver if you want to share to more than one medium.
Snap's Spectacles 3 are made for augmented reality
Snap's Spectacles 2 were functionally better, but not a revolution -- and they were still a bit dowdy. Its latest attempt at smart eyewear might fare better, though. The social service has unveiled Spectacles 3 glasses that include dual HD cameras to capture scenes in 3D and introduce augmented reality Snapchat effects to moments where they weren't previously an option. You can add 3D filters to your walk, take pseudo-3D still shots of your friends and add 3D Lens effects to a bike ride. While you can only record video for up to a minute of continuous video at a time, that's still a tangible improvement over the 10 seconds from before.
Snapchat had more than 200 million daily users last quarter
Snap appears to be working its way out of a downturn. In the company's Q2 earnings release that just dropped. Snap revealed that it had 203 million daily active Snapchat users in the last quarter, up eight percent year-over-year and seven percent quarter-over-quarter. That came after several quarters of declining users, something that was clearly troubling to investors.
Snapchat launches Creator Shows with Serena Williams and Kevin Hart
In the last year, the time spent watching Shows on Snapchat has tripled. The company wants to take advantage of that. Today, it announced Creator Shows, a new format that will deliver regularly published content from some of Snapchat's most popular stars. It's also adding a Highlights feature, which will let Creators add longer-lasting photos and videos to their profiles.
Snapchat made a Bitmoji tennis game to celebrate Wimbledon
It's no secret that Snapchat is a big fan of sport, and tennis is no exception. Last year it released a 3D Bitmoji Lens that let users "take on" tennis legend Serena Williams at Wimbledon, now it's launched a real-time Bitmoji multiplayer tennis game that'll let you challenge your friends right within the chat function.
Fox Sports created a USWNT Snapchat AR lens for the World Cup
The United States women's national soccer team laid down a clear statement of intent to their World Cup rivals after a record-breaking 13-0 win over Thailand in their opening game. Alex Morgan grabbed the headlines by scoring five goals against the Asian side in France, and now the co-captain of the defending champions is taking on another starring role.
Snapchat's battle royale game is out now
Snapchat is getting in on the battle royale craze with Tiny Royale, which you can play right now. The Zynga-developed top-down shooter expands the lineup of available multiplayer Snap Games.
Facebook's Avatars are a belated answer to Bitmoji
Facebook is hoping to shake up its emoji with something that will seem remarkably familiar. The company has introduced its long-expected Avatars, or personalized cartoon stickers that you can use in places like Messenger and the News Feed. They bear more than a passing resemblance to Snapchat's Bitmoji, and offer a similar amount of personalization. You can adjust basics like body types, skin color and hair, and throw in apparel that reflects your style. There's no image-based automatic creation, alas -- Facebook told TechCrunch that it wants to avoid the bias problems that can come with facial recognition.
Google cloud outage knocks out Gmail, Discord and Snapchat (updated)
No, it's not just you -- many of the internet services you use went down this weekend. Google has reported an outage with its Cloud Platform that made several sites and apps inoperable in some regions on June 2nd (they're still affected as we write this). Most of them are in-house services like Gmail, G Suite and YouTube, but this also affected Discord, Snapchat and other apps that depend on Google's infrastructure. The issues were mostly noticeable in the US and Europe.
Snap could let users add songs to their disappearing messages
Snapchat is reportedly looking to make it easier to incorporate music into its ephemeral messages, so users don't have to resort to using tricks and loopholes. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company is currently seeking broad rights to Universal Music Group's, Sony Music Entertainment's and Warner Music Group's catalogs. Snap typically secures song licenses on a case-by-case basis only, but if any of the deals it's pursuing pushes through, then it'll permanently be able to offer a wide variety of tracks as background.
Snapchat employees reportedly snooped on users with 'SnapLion' tool
A bombshell Motherboard report reveals that employees across several departments at Snapchat can view user location information, saved Snaps, phone numbers and email address through a tool known as SnapLion. It's not clear exactly how widespread abuse of the tool is; a former Snapchat employee quoted in the report said that data access abuse happened a "few times" at the organization.
AR porn lenses live on in Snapchat despite ban
Snapchat has deleted Naughty America's account and taken down the X-rated AR lenses it debuted this week. However, the porn studio isn't backing down quietly, as it's distributing the source files and directions for the lenses, and encouraging fans to build their own versions.
Nike's latest Snapchat Lens shows support for USWNT
With the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup drawing closer, fans of the US Soccer Women's National Team have one more way to show their support. The creatives at Nike have put together an AR Lens that slaps a team jersey on you, and of course links to Nike.com for a quick purchase. The USWNT soccer Lens will only be available tomorrow, May 9th, and the timing is close enough that users can snag a jersey in time for the team's "Send-Off Series" of matches begin on the 12th against South Africa, followed by Belgium and Mexico. Meanwhile, Snapchat is trying to deal with its identity crisis, but Lenses people like and using its login to power a popular new quiz app could help change the story.
An AR film explores the worst tech companies could do with your face
I made a beeline for Stealing ur feelings when I entered the Tribeca Film Festival Immersive Arcade last week. Officially, I'll say that my reason for doing so was because it was the most relevant exhibit for Engadget's scope of coverage: This interactive AR short studies what companies like Snap, Facebook and Google are doing (or can do) with the data they have on your facial expressions. But let's be honest, I'm pretty sure I was drawn to it because of the big selfie camera perched over the display.
Snapchat will let you play as your Bitmoji in games
You'll soon be able to play as your Snapchat Bitmoji avatar in a wide variety of video games. Snapchat on Thursday launched a Bitmoji for Games SDK that will let video game developers replace their characters with the app's iconic Bitmoji. Players will be able to scan an on-screen Snapcode to unlock their avatar on any supported games.
