This may or may not be a good thing, depending on your perspective.
This week, Snapchat has announced a new integration with Microsoft Teams, which will enable Teams users to add Snapchat AR effects to their faces during Teams meetings.
Yes, you can now wear a chicken hat that actually moves and clucks during your meeting, or cat ears, if that’s more your thing.
As per Microsoft:
“Starting this week, a collection of 20+ of the most popular Snapchat Lenses are available to Teams customers globally, giving you more ways to express yourself, build relationships and let your meetings shine. Why not use Lenses to share more of your personality during your next Teams meeting and create connections with your coworkers that are, dare I say, memorable?”
Snapchat says that it will rotate 26 of the most popular Lenses through Teams, providing new ways to add a different perspective to your stuffy remote meetings, including both face and background effects.
Which can be fun, but they can also be problematic.
Need I remind you of this incident?
I’ve also suffered from mishaps with Snapchat filters. One time I turned myself into a turtle, then had great difficulty switching it off. As such, you need to be wary of your application, and the context within which you use them.
But if you do want to, you can now change the way you look in your virtual meetings, with the Lenses available within the ‘Video effects’ menu in Teams.
Snapchat also notes that this is Microsoft’s second integration with its Camera Kit, with the company also adding Lens access to Flip, its video learning platform. Snap says that the addition of Lenses in Flip led to a 60% increase in students and teachers creating videos, which underlines the value of fun in the interaction and engagement process.
It’s also another important partnership, with Snap also being a key provider of AR elements for Apple, helping to solidify its leadership in the space.
You can learn more about Lenses for Teams here.
