Snapchat: Can You See The Future?

Snapchat, the social media platform for the younger set, just got cooler, or maybe just younger, or maybe that’s the same thing. The social site, which boasts an estimated 150 million users every day, just changed its name to Snap, and rolled out a new pair of sunglasses called Spectacles.

Now before you start with the Google Glass-related eye rolling response of, “Haven’t we seen this before,” stop. Remember, Snapchat skews younger, and therefore, cooler, than other major social platforms. According to Statista, 60 percent of users are between the ages of 13 and 24.

Snap owes its appeal not only to the fact the younger set has adopted it, but also to the fact it is considered a much more authentic platform than Instagram or Facebook. “Snapchat is where I can really by myself,” is what so many users, and influencers, have told us. Whereas Instagram success often depends on a highly curated, highly stylized approach to posting (which brand managers of course love), and Facebook is overrun by middle aged women (horrific to the younger crowd but brands just can’t ignore their purchasing power), Snap let’s you be you.

And now with the introduction of Spectacles, highly-stylized sunnies in teal, corral and black, the company has made sharing your life in real-time that much easier. The glasses have an integrated video camera that connects directly to Snapchat via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and transfer video directly into the app in a circular video format with a 115-degree field of view. Social media meets fashion meets 3D meets self-absorption meets youth meets authenticity meets access.

So for those marketing managers out there who “just don’t get Snapchat,” it’s time. The company’s entry into hardware may or may not succeed, but this platform’s ability to appeal to its user base is undeniable. As Jonathan Swift once said, “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”

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