What you see is no longer what you get.
With new techs coming up every day, the human brain is no longer satisfied with reality, and would rather create its own. People have their phones on them all day (and all night), and now they can change the world around by looking through their small screens.
Augmented Reality (AR) is the digital overlaying of information on an image through the use of technology. It is also virtual reality’s lesser-known cousin, taking the real world, and changing or adding to it. While VR is a total immersion experience, AR is more grounded and less intrusive.
Read on this week’s edition of Social Speak to find out how Social Media platforms are making themselves Augmented Reality friendly.
Snapchat to feature community’s AR Lenses through their new “Creator Boost” initiative
Augmented Reality is thought to be the next big thing in Social Media, and the platform with the most innovative options will be the winner of the battle. Consequently, it looks like Snapchat is leading the way with their interactive lenses proving popular among active users. The app has opened their AR tools to everyone with their “Lens Studio” and announced that selected creator-made lenses will be featured in the app’s lens carousel, along with their other lens options, providing more exposure for creator content and giving Snapchat another way to stay up with the latest trends.
As reported by Mashable, the new program will be called ‘Creator Boost’ and will provide exposure for lens creators by sharing their username whenever their lens is selected for use.
The app will not be paying the chosen creators for the usage of their lens, but will offer them an exposure to their active users. The selected lenses cannot be branded, and Snapchat will limit the addition of ‘Creator Boost’ additions to a select number of artists for the time being.
The new initiative is another example of Snapchat’s growing push to better cultivate itself with its influencer and creative community. Part of the motivation behind their latest re-design is to put more focus on the app’s best content, which includes highlighting work from some of its top creators within the re-vamped Discover section.
Until recently, Snapchat has refused to offer benefits for influencers, choosing to focus on their ethos and keep the platform more friendly and community-driven.
Facebook added the “Target Tracker” as a new Augmented Reality Tool
Facebook has also announced a new option within their set of augmented reality tools, adding target tracking which allows the camera to track an image and open an immersive experience. “With the AR Target Tracker, creators can develop persistent augmented reality experiences tied to images, logos and signs in the real-world”.
The AR Target Tracker will open-up on the platform this Spring. Like all AR Studio tools, AR Target Tracker will be available and accessible to a wide audience with an extensive range of skills, granting approximately any creator — even individuals with little to no technical background — the capability to create AR experiences and distribute them to the Facebook community. For more information, visit: Facebook Developers AR Studio
That’s it for this week! Stay tuned for our new blog post next week for your dose of the latest social media news.
