Yesterday, Snapchat released its latest feature by introducing the Dual Camera option for Snapchatters to capture 360-degree moments. Launched globally for iOS users on at least an iPhone XS/XR and newer, it’s expected to launch on Android within the next coming months. Although Snapchat promises the feature is different from BeReal, we can’t help but wonder if BeReal would even stand a chance to survive big tech giants if they are already making improvements on BeReal’s unique selling point when they haven’t even gone global yet.
“We here at Snap design for our community and we’ve been working on this feature for several years now. What we think makes it really special and will hopefully resonate with Snapchatters is both the creative layouts we have as well as the ability to add creative tools after the fact, such as post-capture AR Lenses, or stickers and captions. Snap is a place where young people are already communicating and chatting with their best friends, so we think it just makes a lot of sense for our community.”
Jane Meng, Camera Product Manager at Snap quoted by Mashable Middle East
The options to creatively curate content such as adding music, stickers, and AR lenses, enables just another layer of content personalisation, which most users actively seek for when creating. Without the time constraint of BeReal, Snapchat encourages users to rather consider the dual camera as an optional tool to optimise creative content creation for the Snappers as they see fit.
So how does it work?
The new tool will be in the main camera bar with a double camera icon feature. The mode comes in 4 different layout options for Snapchatters, to pick and choose from their liking, as a shot that best captures the content in the moment. The layout includes; vertical dual shots, which display the front and back camera on top of each other; horizontal split screen, which displays the two shots next to each other; picture in picture; which displays the background in full which a small front camera shot in a small icon on the lower right corner; or cutout, which displays the front camera in a green-screen effect as the focus is placed on the rear camera action.
The beauty in dual camera shots on social applications is that it incentivises stronger engagement rates as viewers can see both the action and environment captured while enjoying facial expressions and authentic reactions from Snappers. This allows the audience to feel present and have a better understanding of the contexts of the content as the duality evokes a 360-degree experience. Curious to see this latest feature take trend, we wonder what other platforms will jump onto the bandwagon and see how they will make it their own?
Comment below and let us know what you think of this new feature and how other platforms will adapt to the duality trend.
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