Facebook Brings The Best Of Snapchat In Its Messenger Camera

Facebook Messenger is the gift that keeps on giving. After announcing Messenger day, its first take on Snapchat’s filters, masks, stickers and all the other ways of decorating posts, the Messenger camera upped its game with artistic filters for texts #mobilemagic

Facebook started updating its Messenger camera at the beginning of October, slowly introducing the “My Day” feature. If you tried it already, then you know that the shutter button is visible inside the Messenger app, enabling you to take photos or videos to share directly with chat groups or friends. But that wasn’t all. As with Snapchat, you could add holiday stickers, masks, colorful text. To keep with Snapchat’s winning strategy, the content you posted on that day stayed visible in Messenger for 24 hours.

Now, just before Christmas, Facebook upgraded once more its Messenger camera. The company made it possible for the software to turn every text you attach to a photo or video into art. Your words get filters and appear drawn, instead of typed. Plus, selfies can be transformed into Prisma-inspired drawings. Basically, Facebook took the  most popular features from several apps, especially Snapchat, and brought them all together in the Messenger app.

In order to make the algorithm pick up idioms and delivering appropriate fonts or drawings, designers and engineers worked closely together. In the end, they built “programmatic frames” in no less than 15 languages.

Keep your eyes open for the app upgrade. It should roll out today and tomorrow for all users on iOS and Android, with all the holiday effects coming before Christmas Eve.