However, WeChat, which has always insisted on functional restraint, only added five functions this time, such as graffiti, adding text, stickers, clipping, and "mosaic" for covering.
Just a few days ago, WeChat just updated its short video sharing, and the duration was extended from 6 seconds to 10 seconds. Another subtle change is that the interface of taking photos and recording short videos is integrated. Before that, WeChat took photos and recorded short videos separately, and short videos were started by sliding down the screen.
For a long time, the main communication mode of WeChat is text, followed by voice. Now this series of adjustments are focused on pictures, or visual expressions that are said together with short videos, which reveals that WeChat has also begun to pay attention to the social signals of pictures.
In fact, from the global trend, picture socialization has already become an important strategic direction that all major social platforms are paying attention to.
At present, many social platforms at home and abroad have already added this function, including Facebook, QQ, Weibo and so on. Similar to Snapchat, Instagram, and many products of Meitu, which have just been listed in China, these apps with pictures as the main communication method have already played various "fancy" functions. Although their image style positioning may be different, Snapchat is casual and funny, Instagram emphasizes lifestyle and has the feeling of formal photography, while Meitu mainly takes PS selfies.
The proportion of pictures and short videos on social platforms is getting higher and higher, and even it is the main communication mode of many social apps, and Facebook also regards it as the future strategic direction.
In this year’s third-quarter earnings conference call of Facebook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook will regard Camera as the future communication method. "In today’s social App, the text dialog box is still our default communication method, but soon shooting will take its place."
What Zuckerberg didn’t say is that the leader of this trend is Snapchat, and Snapchat is the only social platform that may threaten its social dominance in the future. In fact, Facebook has been trying to copy a new Snapchat, but it is not very important.
As early as February 2016, at a media summit of the American Magazine Media Association (AMM), Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, told the New Yorker magazine, "People will be used to typing and expressing in words when using computers, but on the mobile side, it is more convenient to interact visually."
Compared with words, pictures or short videos are more efficient and expressive, but the delivery efficiency and accuracy to the recipients are lower. Wechat has always been more conservative in the module of embedding pictures and short videos. In terms of loading function, WeChat has always been extremely restrained. As the dominant social platform in China with 800 million monthly active users, WeChat may be able to maintain its position without any effort.
However, WeChat has been updating its image-related functions so intensively recently, probably because of the sense of crisis, and Snapchat may come to China.
Like many foreign Internet services, Snapchat is blocked in China, but Snapchat’s parent company has set up an office in Shenzhen and is recruiting. According to CNN, Snap has set up a research and development team in Chinese mainland, and is recruiting Android and iOS engineers. At present, Snap’s main function is terminal development of Spectacles.
Spectacles is Snap’s sunglasses, which can shoot short videos. Such a wearable device with simple functions has been sold like wildfire, and there has been a queuing landscape outside the Apple store in the past.
Compared with the label "burn after reading" used by the outside world to define Snapchat, Snap defines itself as a Camera Company. In fact, photo socialization started from Snapchat.
Opening Snapchat directly presents a shooting interface, which is similar to what you see when you open the photo App. There is a big ring shooting button. Click to take a photo, and long press is a short video. (Pay attention to the design of this interactive interface. Wechat has changed this time, and in fact it has been copied into a standard design by other social platforms. Moreover, even if you switch to other interfaces, this shooting button will still float on the interface.
With such emphasis on the entrance of shooting, Snapchat wants its users to know at a glance what they are doing. Shooting this action drives users’ activities in Snapchat, and pictures and short videos have become the default communication methods here. You should know that the initial interface of social apps is usually a list of friends, or a circle of friends or News Feeds. The default expression is that text, pictures and short videos are just an optional option to insert.
In order to take pictures, Snap also introduced sunglasses Spectacles which can shoot short videos. This wearable device with simple functions has been sold like wildfire, and there has been a queuing landscape outside the Apple store in the past.
Many parents in the United States don’t understand why their children can indulge in Snapchat and take so many photos to share in one day. Spiegel explained this in a video called "What is Snapchat" posted on YouTube. Traditionally, taking photos is used to record some important moments, but in Snapchat, "taking photos is just like talking, it is a way of information exchange."
For photo socializing, I have to mention Facebook’s Instagram, the American heavyweight photo sharing community. However, the initial positioning of Instagram was picture sharing, and it can only be publicly praised or commented on pictures, and then it was turned into a social platform route.
In April 2013, Facebook acquired Instagram. In November of the same year, Snapchat rejected Facebook’s acquisition invitation. In December, Instagram added a one-on-one conversation function and developed into a photo social platform. Therefore, Instagram seems to be developing into a social platform under the pressure of Snapchat, which is an action of Facebook to guard against Snapchat.
The most striking thing about Instagram copying Snapchat is that in August 2016, Instagram embedded "Instagram Stories" into its platform. Story is a function that Snapchat launched in 2013. Users can take a few photos and short videos instantly, which will naturally become a story in Stroy. It is set to disappear in 24 hours, so they can continuously play what happened that day in segments.
Instagram didn’t even change its name, and even introduced Snapchat’s complete experience module, but this time the function "learning" effect is extremely remarkable. In December 2016, Instagram announced that its monthly active users (MAUs) reached 600 million, of which 100 million were increased in the past six months. Before that, it took an average of nine months for Instagram to increase 100 million users, and the most important change that happened during this period was Instagram Stories.
Consistent with Zuckerberg’s strategy, Facebook itself will soon complete the transformation of picture socialization. According to Bussiness Insider, Facebook is redesigning the interactive interface of its mobile App in Ireland, and revealed that it will put the main shooting interface similar to Snapchat in the front end, and it will float with the News Feed.
In addition, along with Snapchat’s photo socialization, there are all kinds of funny photo editing functions. Including the ability to add text, graffiti and various stickers, as well as the iconic funny filter. Moreover, not only in photos, but also in dynamic video recording, the filter tool can automatically capture the facial features of users, load filters, and respond according to actions.
For example, Snapchat once had a very red filter, and once the user’s mouth was caught, it could spit out a rainbow. Snapchat will also launch various theme filters according to festivals. For example, users can find various scary shapes during Halloween.
Snapchat also provides a rich selection of stickers, such as various emoji, such as a Geofilters sticker. If users disclose their geographical location to Snapchat, users can add iconic stickers of the location. If you travel in Paris, you can add a sticker of the Eiffel Tower. Users can also use DIY stickers for parties such as weddings; Snapchat even made stickers into advertising marketing, providing exclusive brand stickers.
In addition, various independent style filters have become popular, for example, because of the movie Your Name. The same filter of the fire was named Prisma, the artistic filter tool of the 2016 App. Prisma has just announced the transformation to open up social functions. In addition, the American animation sharing website Imgur has also recently been "social with excellent pictures".
Prisma’s social transformation may be affected by Facebook’s closure of its sharing interface. In March this year, Facebook bought a special filter production tool, Masquerade, which can add all kinds of funny filters to photos and videos and share them with any platform that supports browsing pictures and videos in the form of messages.
The fastest learning in China is QQ, which may be related to its focus on young communities. Now open QQ, and you can also find various Christmas-themed filters.
In fact, there are many versions of Snapchat that are completely "Copy to China", such as "Facau" which has been invested by Meitu, and it also focuses on photo socialization. The interface and burn after reading also learn from Snapchat, but the filter style is different from Snapchat, which is more like Meitu.
Wechat used to think that China’s photo social market was immature, or because there was no decent opponent and no motivation to push for change. But Snapchat’s actions and changes in the global market may have made WeChat feel a crisis.
Moreover, regardless of whether there is competition in the domestic market, if WeChat wants to gain more users and even develop overseas markets, it is also the general trend to embrace photo socialization.
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