Facebook introduced Monday a new feature for its iOS app that allows users to make 15-second videos with a “birthday video camera”. It appears that dedicated video features and filters have been well received by users. Hours later, Snapchat presented “Birthday Party”.
Facebook, which has 1.44 billion monthly active users, is well known for notifying people about their friend’s birthdays. It is common to see Facebook timelines full of short messages that just say “Happy-B” or similar. With the new birthday video cam, users will just need to touch on a pop-up notification and they will start recording a personalized video.
In order to make the experience more specialized, users will be allowed to add a festive colorful frame to the videos that will appear on their friend’s timelines. The new feature is already available on iOS and it will be launched on Android in the next months.
Snapchat announces “Birthday Party” on the same day
The favourite social network of the younger generations presented Monday a new feature that will allow iOS and Android users to use one-day special birthday filters, in their individual snaps and 24-hours-history.
Moreover, a birthday cake emoji will appear next to friend’s usernames on their birthdays, so people can send them their best wishes on their special day. But that’s not all, special filters to send a “happy birthday” to friends will be offered to users, which is very similar to what Facebook presented earlier on Monday, but with more extra options.
By 2015, Snapchat had more than 100 million daily active users worldwide. The social network created in 2011 appears to be one of the most effective for sharing content because its users are among the most engaged and are usually contributing with new content, according to a post by Nasdaq.
On Monday, Snapchat unveiled new On-Demand Geofilters designed for special events and locations. Users can now design their own filters and send them to Snapchat, to display them in specific places and moments. Customers from the U.S., Canada and the U.K. can already use the service. Prices start at $5.
Source: TechCrunch