Facebook To Take On Snapchat After Acquiring Face-Swapping App
Facebook has acquired a popular face-swapping app MSQRD, the app lets you overlay playful, animated filters over your face using your phone’s selfie camera. the app has a striking similarity to video messaging application Snapchat.
The description of MSQRD on the App Store states: “You won’t seem like yourself- literally- in the outrageous selfies you can take with this fun app. Transform your face into dozens of digital masks that blend you features like magical special effects. Featuring celebrities, animals and spooky creatures, MSQRD’s hysterical filters will have the whole family laughing. Best of all, some masks animate depending on your expression.”
The MSQRD app is very popular on the App Stores- both Android and Apple- it has an average rating of 4.5 stars.
On the Masquerade blog, the CEO Eugene Nevgen said: At Masquerade, we’ve worked hard to make video more fun and engaging by creating filters that enhance and alter your appearance. Now, we’re excited to join forces with Facebook and bring the technology to even more people. Within Facebook, we’re going to be able to reach people at a scale like never before. For starters, we’ll be able to bring our technology to Facebook’s audience of nearly 1.6 billion people. This is a scale of audience we never imagined was possible.
“While we will be partnering with Facebook to integrate our technology, the app will stay up and running so you’ll continue to record fun selfies and keep using the product. You can also expect us to keep adding fun features!
“Masquerade has built a fantastic app, MSQRD, with world-class imaging technology for video,” a Facebook spokesperson told B&T. ” We’re excited to welcome Masquerade to our team and continue enhancing the Facebook video experience.”
Tech Insider reports Masquerade will remain as a separate app, but Facebook plans to integrate the technology into its own software. The app’s three founders, Eugene Nevgen, Sergey Gonchar, and Eugene Zatepyakin, will work out of Facebook’s London office.
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