Snapchat hasn’t had the best year. It faced blowback from its botched redesign, lost 3 million daily users in just three months, and its stock price has never been lower. But now you can add new augmented reality lenses to your dog, so that’s something I guess.
Considering the dog lens is part of Snapchat’s claim to fame, you could say this feature is something the company should’ve embraced a long time ago. It prioritised cats last month, and weirdly enough, basic filters that could recognise food, pets, and sports equipment last year. To start, there’s only a limited number of lenses that will work with your pup, though more are reportedly in development.
But really, it’s time for Snapchat to face facts. Adding AR hipster glasses to my dog is cute, and usually cute animals equal internet gold, but I’m not suddenly convinced that I should now use Snapchat more often. Instagram is the current king of pet social media—the platform of choice for furry influencers. If Snapchat’s dog lenses take off, we’ll probably see the Facebook-owned app copy them eventually. Plus, everyone knows that Instagram’s Superzoom effects are where it’s currently at for adorable pet content.
A quick look at daily users for Instagram Stories versus Snapchat earlier this year really just cements how little dog and cat lenses can do at this point.
Still, I tried. And relative cuteness aside, it’s not worth the effort. Unless your pup has the patience of a celebrity dog model, getting them to stay still long enough for the lens to work is be a pain in the arse. My Yorkie might only be six pounds, but wrestling her to face the camera long enough for these stupid hipster glasses to appear WHILE snapping a shot AND looking presentable was fifteen minutes of my life that I can’t get back. It was also not worth the cost of my dog’s affection, as she huffily stomped into the next room as soon as she was free from torment. She still won’t look at me.
So, nice try Snapchat. But I’m still not going back into to your ghostly arms.