Instagram has all but nailed the coffin shut on their Snapchat world domination. First they copied the user interface, then the disappearing messages, and now face filters. Those famous filters that wrap so neatly against your face and what made Snapchat what it is today is now a thing for anyone and everyone on Instagram as well. Have you deleted Snapchat in favor of Instagram yet? Maybe it's time.
Snapchat has been on a crash course since their IPO went live earlier this year. With nothing truly new and innovative since their Snap Spectacles late last year we have yet to see a counter attack. Instagram and Facebook continue to copy and paste the simple idea to their much wider audience in hopes to eventually take them out of competition in the tech world. Today, that change comes in the form of new face filters for Instagram. Sure, many still find Snapchat superior to Instagram Stories and the incredibly rare use of Facebook Stories but the demise of Snapchat is inevitable. That is, unless they can continue to innovate and expand past what they have currently. I absolutely love what they did with the Snap Spectacles but their are still overpriced and hard to come by with weeks to wait for a pair online.
The latest from Instagram is in the form of a handful of face filters that bring augmented reality to those looking to take a more animated selfie or add some character to those around them in photo or video form. I will admit, I love the feature on Snapchat and it was going ot sooner or later make its way to Instagram. Hopefully they become a bit more creative with their choices as time goes because right now, they are identical to the ones Instagram uses curently. Come one guys, I am a huge fan of Instagram but let's be original here and if you are going to copy and paste a feature like Snapchat then at least make the filters a bit more unique to the platform you have.
Adding to the features with this update we also get Rewind. Reverse played videos directly in the Stories feature on Instagram.
We also have tags for hashtags within stories, so share on people!
And last but not least, we are now able to erase within the stories feature. Not a bad addition actually. I have wanted to do this for some time to add a bit more character or call out to a post.
To be totally honest I deleted Snapchat the day Instagram Stories was released and couldn't be happier these updates are coming to Instagram. What do you think? Do you still use Snapchat? Have you been using both Snapchat and Instagram Stories? Hit me up in the comments below or directly on Instagram here.
[via Instagram]
Can't wait to try them out.....
Yep, why bother with innovative options when you can be under one giant monopolized overlord?
I have lost all hope for the future of mankind if this is what the bulk of people find worthwhile in photography...
How pessimistic. And elitist.
Sure, our relationship with photography has changed and continues to change with new innovations. It's always been that way. Photography was an engineering and chemical process for specialists, then came the brownie and people were able to take their own photos. Those photos are horrible from a technical standpoint (the lenses were very low quality, and most people knew nothing about composition or framing), but they gave people the opportunity to document their lives and have become valuable family and historical documents. And it started a lot of people on their path to photography (Ansel Adams started with a brownie).
And so it continued with each new iteration "for the masses"— Instamatic cameras, polaroid cameras, 110s, disc cameras, 1mpx digital cameras, cell phone cameras, digital editing suites, Instagram, filters. Each time it was introduced, it was a novelty. And this is what these filters are, too, until their not. Some "kid" out there right now is looking at these silly filters and thinking, "What can I do with digital images that's like this? What are the limits?" And we don't know where this will go next. What comes from this might not even have anything to do with photography.
So, most people use them for fun (there's no harm in that), but there is always someone who sees a possibility. Mankind has a future, and the hope is in innovation no matter how silly it might seem.
Elitist? What kind of person are you that you are authorised to throw out insults like that?
It was not meant to be an insult, just a descriptor. Elitism is just the belief that the value of something is determined by an elite group. In this case, it seems that you believe the value of photography should be determined by the standards of professional photographers, artists, or other such elite groups.
I take this from your statement that it is sad that this is what most people find worthwhile in photography. I take your point to be that they are somehow "doing it wrong". That is holding them to an elite set of standards.
Elitism is just a way of thinking. If I wanted to insult you I would have called you a snob, but I won't do that because I don't intent to insult you.
Let's start again.
For me the idea of sharing photography is important. However, what Snapchat and now Instagram are doing is not photography. It's infantile (imo). It's what we used to do in grade school with stickers and felt tip pens. That it has become such a matter of gravitas in the war to win eyes and attention between these monster platforms is what I am worried about.
Has our appreciation for the art of photography sunk so low that to pin bunny ears and pigs noses on portraits determines the fate of equity on the stock market? Maybe I'm just not young enough to understand the allure of these things?
Honestly though, it's time for the thinkers of the world to take back control of the internet and condemn these social media platforms for what they are; a cesspool of digital human waste. That may seem pessimistic and elitist to you, but it is my honest opinion of the state of the internet right now.
"it's time for the thinkers of the world to take back control of the internet ..."
That's the elitism I was talking about.
I don't think these social media novelties actually define photography as a whole. It's only one part of it. Just as most people would not consider a selfie and a self-portrait to be the same thing (although they technically are), I doubt anyone confuses a professional shoot with adding a digital crown to your selfie through a filter. Some might, but most won't.
You said it yourself, people have done some variation of this for a long time. It's fun for some people. It's not for others. I'm in my 40s and have been a professional photographer for almost two decades. This doesn't appeal to me, but it's not a threat either.
I don't feel threatened. I'm just saddened that this is the kind of banality that our world finds amusing, and even sadder that giant companies are clambering to be first choice in supplying the platform that the banal will choose.
It goes a little deeper for me though. I despise Facebook and its moons for what it has done to the internet and also that Zuckerberg thinks that everything on the internet should belong to his organisation. Where is the anti-trust machine that Bill Gates had to fight when he launched Internet Explorer?
If a thinking man is considered elitist then I'll jump on that wagon every day.
You obviously like the phrase "a thinking man" and you like to think of yourself as one. Most people do. The problem is, you have set yourself at odds with everyone else by equating your tastes and opinions as the standards to judge who is and who isn't "a thinking man."
Now, who's insulting who?
My wife and most of my friends are college professors, artists, and published authors— demonstrably "thinking people". Some are like me and this filter does not appeal to them. Others love stuff like this. I don't know why and it really doesn't matter. It's their taste.
People are weird and complex. Thinking people can like frivolous things. Frivolous people have serious concerns. What you call banal other people call harmless fun.
Why would you assume you "know better" than all those people? What would make you think that your taste is superior? Why are you so sure you are "a thinking man" and they are not?
There are threats to photography and its place in society. But this filter isn't one. As both of us have said, these kinds of frivolities have gone on for a long time in one way or another. This filter isn't a threat; arrogance and snobbery are, however.
I disagree with the implication that smart people are university professors, or artists or authors. They're not necessarily smart because of their academic or artistic accomplishments. Some of the smartest people I have met in life have no university education. Truly smart people figure things out on their own. They don't need to be educated much.
Anyway, I digress...
It's been very interesting to watch all of this play out between Facebook/Instagram and Snapchat. There's definitely a David vs. Goliath element to it now and perhaps Snap could make a comback--they at least appear to have more goodwill from users than FB/IG lately. If IG wants to engender more of their own they should now introduce more unique features of their own rather than copying Snapchat and strong-arming them out. All this business isn't kind, that's for sure.
What took them so long?
The same stupid selfies now with additional garbage on it.
I don't know if this is the end of snapchat but it will certainly take a lot of wind out of its sails. User growth will slow to trickle. Their stock is in serious trouble unless they find a way to generate some excitement. FB / IG will eat their lunch.