4 ms·

Perhaps it doesn't scale well, but their sponsored face filters seem to be getting a good reception. It's rare for people to find ads fun.

alexggordon 10y ago
This. The sponsored filters show up in my friends stories all the time. I also see sponsored filters based on events and location. I actually find myself watching the sponsored stories pretty regularly too. It's a great way to fit news into small bitesized chunks, and I can't imagine the buy in for those is cheap.
AndrewKemendo 10y ago
It's also the most widely used AR implementation - if somewhat trivial and non-complicated. It might seem silly from the outside, but that's actually meaningful because it gets people used to the idea of modifying the "real world" with a contextual addition.
alttab 10y ago
Fucking pissed me off to the max, actually. This week, they did X-Men lenses and REMOVED the face swap and picture swap features for the entire day. If I wanted to use lenses, it had to be X-Men for the whole day. What PM green-lit that shitty decision? I closed Snapchat and didn't use it for the entire day. I'm boycotting the X-Men movie out of protest.
- unclebucknasty 10y ago
  Going a whole day without face/picture swap "pissed you off to the max"? Seems you have a pretty good life.
  - alttab 10y ago
    Pedantry is alive and well on hacker news
  - frankzinger 10y ago
    And this insult doesn't reflect very well on yours.
argonaut 10y ago
Yeah but I seriously doubt that will drive them to $1B in revenue. They need one big cash cow rather than a collection of trinkets.
- ivanca 10y ago
  They may learn to use those trinkets. Just imagine a button that says `Buy for $0.20 the X-Men Wolverine Mask filter` or just detecting user patterns: They detect an user mostly uses cat-faces filters, so they try to sell her cat-faces filters. Or that her snap-chats are mostly on restaurants, so they show her some restaurant ads with the same color filters she likes.
  - jaywunder 10y ago
    They already tried to sell filters. I think selling filters didn't go well because filters are free now.
puranjay 10y ago
Works only for a couple of verticals I'll be darned if an insurance provider can make a filter fun It's also something most small businesses can't really make good use of, unless they are in the entertainment/lifestyle businesses
- rdl 10y ago
  I'm sure the GEICO lizard could be fun for someone, and an insurer could probably do a "fake accident filter to get out of work" or something.

alexggordon 10y ago

This. The sponsored filters show up in my friends stories all the time. I also see sponsored filters based on events and location. I actually find myself watching the sponsored stories pretty regularly too. It's a great way to fit news into small bitesized chunks, and I can't imagine the buy in for those is cheap.

AndrewKemendo 10y ago

It's also the most widely used AR implementation - if somewhat trivial and non-complicated. It might seem silly from the outside, but that's actually meaningful because it gets people used to the idea of modifying the "real world" with a contextual addition.

alttab 10y ago

Fucking pissed me off to the max, actually. This week, they did X-Men lenses and REMOVED the face swap and picture swap features for the entire day. If I wanted to use lenses, it had to be X-Men for the whole day. What PM green-lit that shitty decision? I closed Snapchat and didn't use it for the entire day. I'm boycotting the X-Men movie out of protest.

unclebucknasty 10y ago
Going a whole day without face/picture swap "pissed you off to the max"? Seems you have a pretty good life.
- alttab 10y ago
  Pedantry is alive and well on hacker news
- frankzinger 10y ago
  And this insult doesn't reflect very well on yours.

argonaut 10y ago

Yeah but I seriously doubt that will drive them to $1B in revenue. They need one big cash cow rather than a collection of trinkets.

ivanca 10y ago
They may learn to use those trinkets. Just imagine a button that says `Buy for $0.20 the X-Men Wolverine Mask filter` or just detecting user patterns: They detect an user mostly uses cat-faces filters, so they try to sell her cat-faces filters. Or that her snap-chats are mostly on restaurants, so they show her some restaurant ads with the same color filters she likes.
- jaywunder 10y ago
  They already tried to sell filters. I think selling filters didn't go well because filters are free now.

puranjay 10y ago

Works only for a couple of verticals I'll be darned if an insurance provider can make a filter fun It's also something most small businesses can't really make good use of, unless they are in the entertainment/lifestyle businesses

rdl 10y ago
I'm sure the GEICO lizard could be fun for someone, and an insurer could probably do a "fake accident filter to get out of work" or something.