Instagram has now become a complete Snapchat clone. There, we said it. And it is no surprise. It has been long overdue. First, it was Snap’s slideshow-sharing format, overlaid creative tools, disappearing Direct messages and more lately Snapchat Stories. This time it’s Selfie lenses. Instagram is calling it Face Filters. Of course, Facebook has already implemented this feature. It’s a surprise Instagram is so late to the party.
The new filters are “an easy way to turn an ordinary selfie into something fun and entertaining,” Instagram wrote in a blog post detailing the changes.
Instagram Face Filters
Initially, they are rolling out eight filters among which gold crown, nerd glasses, bunny and makeup are more popular among Snapchat users. Face filters will work with both the front and rear cameras and with all the shooting modes like photo, video, or even Boomerang. You can use face filters by opening the camera app and tapping a new icon on the bottom right corner. But first, you will have to update the Instagram app to version 10.2.
The concept of using Augmented reality to spruce up pictures or videos by using animations was first brought in trend by Snapchat when they bought Looksery- a company which was researching in this field.
There are some other features also which have been introduced today with face filters.
A Rewind feature lets you record videos and share them in reverse, hence the word Rewind.
A new Eraser tool lets you remove some animations and doodles you have added.
And a unique feature called Hashtag stickers. Users will now be able to add hashtag “stickers” to a photo or video when posting it to their Story. And viewers can view all the images or videos wit the same Hashtag by tapping on them
