That's not a rhetorical question. The social media startup, currently valued at $16 billion, is recruiting hardware experts for a stealthy new project.Snapchat now counts nearly a dozen wearable technology vets among its
ranks, as well as industrial designers who worked on Nokia phones and
Logitech's popular UE Boom Bluetooth speaker, according to the LinkedIn profiles of employeesThat's intriguing because Snapchat, which boasts 100 million daily (mostly teen) users, has never produced a single physical product -- unless you count merchandise likebeach towels and backpacks.
The hires suggest Los Angeles-based Snapchat is
working on its first piece of consumer hardware. If it succeeds, we might start to think of Snapchat as more than a social network for sharing pictures that disappear.
working on its first piece of consumer hardware. If it succeeds, we might start to think of Snapchat as more than a social network for sharing pictures that disappear.
Perhaps it could be the company that builds a set of smart glasses you'd actually want to wear."If they are actually investing in new tech, that could be great," said a
virtual reality entrepreneur, who wasn't authorized to speak about a
potential competitor. "They probably know that most apps in their
situation have a limited lifespan and monetization potential."A spokeswoman for Snapchat declined to comment on the project.As Internet giants invest in virtual reality -- Facebook paid $2 billion for Oculus, and Google is a key investor in mysterious VR startup Magic Leap -- it's no surprise that Snapchat CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel might also make a play with smart goggles.
Snapchat in 2014 purchased Vergence Labs, a startup that makes Google Glass-like
eyewear that records video of what the wearer sees. Out of 12 former
Vergence employees listed on LinkedIn, five still work at Snapchat,
including two consumer product designers and a co-founder of the
company.In February 2015, Snapchat began building Snapchat Research,
a team now composed of over a dozen scientists and software engineers
specializing in computer vision and machine learning. Other big data
companies like Google and Facebook use those artificial intelligence
techniques to recognize objects or people in the photos you share
online. But they're also important for headsets like Microsoft's HoloLens, which use computer vision to intelligently scan the environment.
Snapchat, founded in 2011 by three Stanford University students, started
out as a way to share photos that would self-destruct after just a few
seconds. The idea was to free people from the fear that awkward pictures
of themselves shared online might be seen by the wrong people, such as
future employers. It also lets celebrities like Lady Gaga, Rihanna and
Justin Bieber reach their fans in an ephemeral way.
Five years later, Snapchat is also a video streaming giant where users view over 8 billion videos a day.
That means Snapchat has caught up to Facebook, where people viewed 8
billion videos a day as of November. (Snapchat famously turned down a $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook in 2013.)
Imagine a set of glasses that lets you capture videos and photos instantly. Snapchat has already patented one
of the easiest ways to record multimedia on a smartphone. You just tap
the shutter button in its app to take a picture, or hold it down to
record a video instead.
But first, you have to pull out a phone and navigate to the Snapchat app.
As much as Google Glass was demonized,
one of its most useful features was a camera that was always ready for
action and captured exactly what the wearer saw. A pair of Snapchat
glasses could do away with the extra steps involved in snapping a shot,
and that could encourage people to use the service even more than they
do now.
More people using the service means more ways for Snapchat to figure out
how to make money off those fans. Right now, Snapchat makes its money
from sponsored images, sponsored photo filters, and by selling the ability to replay an image that has already disappeared.Several recent hires also suggest Snapchat might be working on smart glasses.
Mark Dixon, a former Microsoft recruiter for the HoloLens headset, is now a member of Snapchat's team. A portion of his LinkedIn profile reads:
"I'm currently building capabilities for a stealth group here on Venice
Beach." Dixon, who also helped staff Microsoft's Xbox division,
describes himself as "a gadget guy" who's passionate about "advancements
in consumer electronics" at his LinkedIn page.
Eitan Pilipski, who was hired by Snapchat in January as an engineering
director, joined after a five-year stint on Qualcomm's Vuforia team. The
Vuforia software harnesses computer vision techniques foraugmented reality, or AR, experiences using smartphones and smart eyewear.
A current Snapchat job posting for
a "3D Computer Vision Engineer" suggests another link between the
computer vision and consumer electronics efforts. Out of 74 open
positions on Snapchat's job board, it's one of three listed under a previously unknown "Snap Lab" division.
The only other mention of Snap Lab is in the LinkedIn profile of Kelly
Nyland, Snapchat's new head of marketing, who previously helped
popularize the BB-8 Sphero rolling droid toy and the Parrot AR Drone. She'll handle the "go-2-market strategy" for Snap Lab, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Snapchat declined to comment on Snap Lab. Nyland wasn't available for comment.
Perhaps the best evidence for smart glasses is that Snapchat has an
eyewear designer on its team. Lauryn Morris created frames for Michael
Kors, Innovega and Zac Posen, according to her personal website. Her LinkedIn profile says she joined Snapchat in November 2014, around the time of the Vergence Labs acquisition.
Two of Snapchat's engineers also have expertise in gaze tracking and
speech recognition, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Both would be
useful for a headset. And one former Snapchat employee wrotethat
he designed "highly miniaturized and very low power electronics" for
Snapchat before he left in January. The last time he designed "highly
miniaturized" electronics was for Eyefluence, the startup that built these eye-tracking glasse
It's not certain Snapchat will actually produce a set of smart
glasses, even if it's working on them. It's also not clear what they
would look like or how much they might cost. But Snapchat is aware of
the perception problem that doomed Google's Glass headset three years ago.
In 2013, Snapchat's CEO was asked if he would produce a version of the Snapchat app for Google Glass. Spiegel's reply via The Huffington Post:
"[Y]ou kind of feel like you have a gun pointed at you, and that
doesn't fit into the Snapchat experience and certainly doesn't make
Snapchatters feel comfortable -- so that's not something we're willing
to explore right now."
Maybe the fear of that gun, like Snapchat's disappearing photos, will vanish over time.
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