Explore our Social Media Marketing Toolkit

Instagram Launch Selfie Filters

Author's avatar By Jessica Wade 24 May, 2017
Essential Essential topic

Instagram mimics Snapchat with Face Filters and an eraser tool

You may have noticed pandas ears, butterfly crowns and nerd glasses appearing in your Instagram stories. That's because last week Instagram launched it not too dissimilar to Snapchats filters - 'Selfie filters'. The Facebook-owned app has added 8 new filters meaning you can now add cartoon-style filters before sending them to your friends.

Facebook has slowly been copying Snapchats successful features and introducing them across Instagram and facebook such as disappearing video stories and comments. It was reported that when Instagram launched Stories in August 2016 it reached 150 million daily users. That’s the same number of users that Snapchat’s whole app reportedly hit around June 2016. Snapchats users are now migrating over to Instagram as it launches new formats and features. Instagrams VP of Product, Kevin Weil, gave his perspective on coping Snapchat:

'If we're being honest with ourselves, this is the way the tech industry works and frankly, it's how all industries work. Good ideas start in one place, and they spread across the entire industry. Kudos to Snapchat for being the first to stories, but it's a format and it's going to be adopted widely across a lot of different platforms.'

They have also rolled out creative tools for the camera such as the rewind tool you can use to make videos that play in reverse and an eraser brush, allowing you to erase other things you’ve drawn.

Currently, these filters cannot be sponsored but it has been speculated that Facebook will eventually sell sponsored masks. This is a massive threat to Snapchat bringing up the risk of driving down the cost of its most valuable ad experience. The question is if advertisers will jump ship from Snapchat to Instagrams new format. We have already seen this happen, since launching stories Instagram has 200 million daily users compared to Snaphat who have 166 daily active users.  Advertisers want to be where their audience are and so far the stats suggest that users are more likely to use Instagram.

We have recently updated our Instagram marketing guide to help you grow your business and create a full proof social strategy. The toolkit includes a step-by-step guide and resources to help deliver awesome results.

Author's avatar

By Jessica Wade

I was previously the Social Media Executive for Smart Insights and managed all of Smart Insights social media channels and social strategy. I love all things social, most of the time you will find me endlessly scrolling through Instagram. You can follow me on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

Recommended Blog Posts