Snap trials new user interface, glasses
With the revamp of its app and the launch of next-generation AR glasses, Snap is laying the groundwork for growth, in revenue and technical capabilities.
Last night, CEO Evan Spiegel presented a long series of innovations to the Snapchat app and the ecosystem around it at a partner meeting in the US.
The biggest change for the daily 430 million users is the photo app’s interface. Chat and Maps will be merged on the left and Stories and Spotlights in a button on the bottom right.
“Snapchatters will find a new viewing experience that combines Stories and Spotlight videos. It is driven by our first-ever unified recommendation system, providing the most personalised experience yet. Videos from friends are prioritized and recommendations are based on what Snapchatters like to share with their followers, what’s trending in their circle and, of course, what they like to watch.”
In turn, developers of software and lenses and creators (avid snappers) get more resources to work with. These range from templates for creators and a public-private button when posting to Snap lenses for screens in more sports stadiums and AI tools for Lens Studio.
Snap’s goal is to facilitate more creativity and interaction in the app. That should lead to more advertising revenue, as that cash flow has been under pressure in recent months.
Spiegel recently said in an update to his staff: “Our advertising business is growing slower than that of our competitors. The growth of this business is one of the key fundamentals under our long-term revenue potential. And investors are concerned that we are not growing fast enough.” The latter translates into a stock market value that is at 10% of its peak and are now at the bottom.
Creators will soon be able to export more interaction and demographic data about their audiences. This, in turn, will allow them to entice advertisers to engage with them.
CEO Spiegel, co-founder of Snap, also wants to build up and expand the performance advertising arm. Advertising revenue now consists mainly of money from branding budgets.
A few sneers at Apple could not be missed when Snap presented its new Spectacles. Snap’s Internet glasses, unlike Apple and Meta’s hardware, are ‘real’ glasses. The device can be worn like glasses and the lenses act as small projection screens. Transparent projection screens. That facilitates plenty of play with lenses and entertaining apps.
Spectacles, the California company’s fifth-generation Internet glasses, runs on its self-developed operating system, Snap OS. “It uses our proprietary technology, including LCoS microprojectors and waveguides. This creates vivid, sharp images both indoors and outdoors – even in direct sunlight. With two Snapdragon processors from Qualcomm, this infrastructure distributes the computational workload between the two processors, enabling immersive experiences while reducing power consumption and improving heat dissipation. Spectacles deliver up to 45 minutes of uninterrupted standalone runtime.”
First the developer version will come to market, for $99 month. Once this group has made enough applications, the consumer version of the rather clunky glasses will come out.
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