Snapchat is getting real. It’s taking cues from BeReal, a social media platform that has a dual camera function.
Announced today, Snap unveiled the dual camera setting, which can be used in Snaps, Stories, and Spotlight videos. You can also choose between a vertical or horizontal split, circular picture-in–picture or cutout overlay to control the appearance of your double image.
The new option is now available for iOS. However, Android users will need to wait until the feature arrives in “the next months .”
Snap’s parent company has established itself as an ageing social media platform. While it was once the one getting copied when the much-bigger and then-Facebook-now-Meta-owned Instagram replicated its “Stories” feature, Snap is now looking to newer social media platforms like BeReal for inspiration.
It should be mentioned that this is not a knockoff. Although the dual camera looks very similar to the one in BeReal’s, its core functionality has been adapted for Snapchat. Snap isn’t suddenly sending out notifications to post at a specific time, which is arguably the more critical difference that separates BeReal from its counterparts.
Still, Snapchat’s loss of favor among the young has been documented since Kylie Jenner sent its stock plummeting with a single tweet back in 2018. The app also waded into the TikTok competition by starting “Spotlight.” Spotlight highlights user-created videos (like, say, those on TikTok) that could be up to 60 seconds long. Snap also said it would offer a $1 million daily prize pool split among the most popular videos. The more popular the video, the more of that total prize pool users can earn. Not unlike TikTok’s Creator Fund which was launched just months before.
Snap continues to be a work in progress. The app’s number of daily active users has grown since that misstep. And along with the dual camera announcement, the company encouraged its use by reminding users of said reward program.
“On Snapchat, our community is rewarded for their creativity,” the blog post reads. “Snap has a reward program for Spotlight creators in which it makes available millions of dollars to eligible Snapchatters who create the top Spotlight Snaps. Share what you make with Dual Camera on Spotlight, or if inspiration strikes quickly, create a Snap to send to your friends or post to your Story.”
So, Snapchatters, keep it real.
