For years, social media apps, like Snapchatย have attracted attention in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). While some devices, such as Google Glass, have fallen far short of promises, AR is being used in apps and social media in greater numbers and with greater ease than ever before. We’re getting closer to a scenario where augmented reality is commonplace as technology and general acceptance improve.
From Apple to Facebook, the world’s largest companies are attempting to make augmented reality to be a part of our regular online lives, and social media is at the vanguard of AR’s widespread adoption.
What Impact Has AR Had On Social Media?
Snapchat’s face filters are probably the first thing that pops into mind when we think of AR filters on social media. They’re instantly recognised, and their introduction signalled a significant shift in the consumer availability of augmented reality capabilities. But there was Google Glass before Snapchat’s filters.
Google Glass was a promising concept that became a real-world failure. It was framed as a game-changing technology that would allow users to view digital content overlaid on the real world around them. Google Glass and its AR technology never made it into the masses, due to its reputation as an elitist status symbol and the scrutiny of its stealthy recording features.
Smartphones and social media apps, however, have given AR a new lease on life. AR continued to stutter toward becoming a mainstream reality as people experimented with and discovered new methods to apply filters and effects. Snapchat, in particular, assisted in the mainstream acceptance of AR by putting it in the hands of active social media users. With Snapchat, augmented reality became a technology that could be used by anyone with a smartphone, rather than only those who could purchase Google Glass.
Pokรฉmon Go, Niantic’s breakthrough hit of 2016, proved that augmented reality wasn’t just for selfies, we could use it to transform our surroundings into a virtual playground. If Snapchat’s usage of augmented reality was proof of concept, Pokรฉmon Go’s app proved that it wasn’t only for selfies.
Major Social Media Platforms Are Enhancing Their AR Features
Following a less-than-stellar Q1 2017 earnings report, Snap is hoping to entice users back with a brand new feature that’s only available on Snapchat for the time being. Sponsored World Lenses is a Snapchat feature that allows users to employ sponsored AR filters to enhance any snap, not just selfies. Not to be outdone, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, released AR-enabled Face Filters that are similar to Snapchat’s just one day later.
Thoughย these features are new, it’s important that they don’t feel especially innovative. In fact, they appear to be logical extensions of existing capabilities, showing that AR isn’t just a passing trend but a growing and maturing technology.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in F8 (Facebook’s annual conference), “We are going to make the camera the first augmented reality platform,” augmented reality was a hot topic. Facebook has added filter and effects elements to several of its apps, but its Camera Effects Platform, which includes its AR Studio and Frame Studio, is a significant part of the company’s AR plan. The platform invites designers and developers to create interactive features and effects, allowing for a larger creative force to work on AR on Facebook rather than a small in-house team as Snapchat does.
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