Mobile app Masquerade allows users to add filters to their selfies. (Photo : YouTube/8BitCR Tecnología!)
Facebook acquires social image filter app Masquerade as the popular social media site looks to rival Snapchat. Only a few months old, social image filter app Masquerade often written as MSQRD has already proved incredibly popular.
The app allows its users to take selfies with a variety of filters along with animated effects such as Iron Man and it recently added a face-swapping feature too. While the Belarus-based team behind the app has not revealed official user statistics, estimations suggest that it has over 12 million users, and it has become the #1 app in a dozen countries.
This massive popularity is perhaps why Facebook has now snapped up the app for an undisclosed figure, CNet reported. A Facebook spokeswoman explained that Masquerade offers "world-class imaging technology for video." Moreover, Facebook plans to let Masquerade stay as a standalone, free app, which will surely be good news for those millions of users.
On the other hand, in a company blog, Masquerade said it is "excited to join forces with Facebook and bring the technology to even more people." The company stated that it will be able to "bring our technology to Facebook's audience of nearly 1.6 billion people," which is something that the team "never imagined was possible". The team behind the app also says that it plans to introduce more fun features.
So while Masquerade will carry on doing what it's doing, critics have already been speculating on how soon it is before Facebook launches fun filters of its own, with the Masquerade team's help. Facebook has over 1 billion users, as the Masquerade team notes, but lately many of these users have taken an interest in Snapchat, with the photo and video sharing app introducing filters and paving the way for Masquerade's success. This includes a face-swapping filter, along with filters that are paid for.
Snapchat has not revealed exactly how much money that it is making from the sales of filters, but as the Snapchat team releases new ones regularly, it stands to reason that the company is making bank. Clearly, if Facebook has chosen to purchase Masquerade, it shows that Snapchat's rivals feel threatened or wary enough of its success that it is taking steps to emulate it for themselves.
Watch a demonstration of Masquerade below:
