Is Snapchat Developing AG Glasses?
According to an industry insider, Snapchat just joined the Bluetooth Special Interest Group as an adopter. This means Evan Spiegel’s social media company will be building Bluetooth-enabled products alongside all those selfie lenses.
They have already acquired Looksery and Vergeance Labs. The first is the company behind the facial modification technology that makes Snap lenses possible. The second was creating smart-glasses similar to the Google Glass through Kickstarter.
The company has also taken in hardware specialists from GoPro and Nokia, and technical recruiters from Microsoft Hololens and Google’s Project Aura. While the company is already worth $18 billion, the recent growth hints at a much larger plan.
Could all of this mean Snapchat is entering the augmented reality game? Just last year, Speigel wore a smartglasses prototype during a vacation in Corsica. It is anyone’s guess what the prototype looks like now, or how it is supposed to function.
Whatever direction the company goes in, this could be a great opportunity to target teenage obesity rates.
What Do These Two Have to Do With Each Other?
The app is the most popular social network for teens. Instagram and Facebook are trailing behind. The massive audience has gained Snapchat the eye of media names like MTV and National Geographic. Of the 150 million daily active users, a quarter of them were teens.
On the other hand, a study by the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System found a high rate of obesity in high school students. 13.9 percent of high school students were obese, while an additional 16 percent were overweight. These numbers are the highest since the study was first conducted in 1999.
Snapchat can use its presence in teen lives to promote fitness and health. What if fitness websites showcased stories alongside Buzzfeed and ESPN? What if the Memories feature also kept track of before and after pictures? This possibilities expand if the company is developing AR technology.
Re-Defining Fitness for Teens
Today’s youth hasn’t known a world without the internet, and the future will only find a greater number of digital natives. Meanwhile, participation in team sports like basketball and football are dropping. Teens in general don’t get the amount of physical activity they should be getting.
If teens didn’t think fitness was boring, would they practice it? It’s possible. There are already a number of AR apps that can aid a healthy lifestyle.
Snapchat’s investment could lead to more than just fun and social connection. While the company has found its main purpose as a social media network, Spiegel shows he is forward-looking.
– Osmond Arnesto
Have you seen a really cool VR experience you think we should know about? Leave a comment below so we can check it out!
