THE MAGIC OF FACIAL RECOGNITION
August 23, 2016
If you've been paying close attention to Snapchat's evolution over the last year,
you would can probably guess that facial recognition is their emerging tech focus.
you would can probably guess that facial recognition is their emerging tech focus.
A super quick overview -
Snapchat is basically 3 separate experiences toggled together
Snapchat is basically 3 separate experiences toggled together
(1)
CAMERA
Where you take your photos and videos
(2)
STORIES
Where people and brands publish their photos and videos to create an ongoing "story". These photos disappear 24 hours from when they are posted but a "story" never really ends. As you publish/post your next photo or video, your story continues.
(3)
CHAT
Where people can privately text to each other. This is what I call old-school Snapchat, or the original way Snapchat launched. This is definitely why anyone over 30 says "I don't get Snapchat" It's basically texting - just through the Snapchat platform.
While a lot of press has been focused on STORIES (Now with the launch of Instagram Stories = essentially the Discover section - where brands pay a lot of dough to share their branded content in a dedicated button at the top of the STORIES screen as well as in the Discover section. Think ad sponsorships), I believe it's the CAMERA section that will be the true heart of Snapchat and it's atmospheric growth in the social world. Two telling signs - their acquistion of Looksery and their research of Visual Search.
ANIMATED LENSES & LOOKSERY.
Although Snapchat has been around since 2011, they only more recently introduced the super popular animated lenses last year (just like Stories - also new last year) Snapchat chat had been basically the CHAT section for years. (aka the texting-style section where photos just disappeared.) As we know now, the platform has completely evolved their consumer opportunities and engagement and have turned into a solid communication platform. Stories and Lenses have helped to tip Snapchat and skyrocket them into the social atmosphere.
Snapchat overhauled their Stories section in May 2016 with a sleeker UX in addition to more native sponsor distribution/placement. While that's all good for brands and ad partners, it's the lenses that hold a bit of the magic sauce.
- They change almost daily and you never know when your fave lens will disappear (sadness) or return (delight!) to the mix
- It's a massive windfall for brands to sponsor a 1-day lens (exponential exposure to community) as well as Snapchat (exponential cash back in their pocket from said brand purchasing lens)
- Their emerging tech of animated lenses are first-waving facial tracking and people are loving it.This is really only the beginning
- It's seriously fun to play with the lenses. Seriously.
So how did these whacky lenses come to Snapchat and why should brands and businesses pay attention? They smartly acquired Looksery, a digital company that has created facial tracking and modification technologies. They are the folks behind the "how do they do this?" tech for all of those fun animated lenses you see on Snapchat. Move left and your filter follows your face.
Facial recognition is still in it's infancy as Looksery and MSQRD (the filter-based company that Facebook acquired last year - I predict you will see those filters soon on Instagram Stories) are testing the waters on us with visual experiences. Up next - AR, VR and everything in between.
While this is where we are heading, I still hope that there is consideration into creating IRL experiences that will integrate our need (now) for generating content. More to come on this for sure.
Btw, if you are interested in taking a deep dive into Looksery - click here to check out their patent process. This can give a lot of clues into their structure and style.