Snapchat update: App lets ‘face-swapping’ feature use pictures from people's camera roll

The new update also drops the ‘pay-to-reply’ feature, meaning that people can’t pay to watch snaps again anymore

Andrew Griffin
Friday 22 April 2016 05:11 EDT
Comments
A man uses Snapchat on an iPhone
A man uses Snapchat on an iPhone (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Snapchat is now letting anyone face-swap with pictures in their camera roll, changing a feature that had already taken over every social network.

The new feature allows people to swap their faces onto someone else’s body, or vice versa, without having to stand next to them and awkwardly fit two people into the frame.

Snapchat’s face-swapping feature has led to it apps that offer similar features to spread across social networks, leading to people face-swapping the queen and ancient statues.

Now people will be able to do that without having to actually take the picture. The new feature means people can face swap with any picture that was previously taken or is downloaded into the phone’s camera roll.

The same update brings with it the removal of Snapchat’s pay-to-replay feature. That allowed people to pay a small price to watch a snap again – but that has now been dropped, in favour of letting people re-watch just one snap per day.

Snapchat has been gradually removing its paid-for features, which also included a store for buying new filters, instead looking to make money by offering marketing deals like sponsored lenses.

The feature is enabled through an update. It’s already available on iOS now, and appears to be gradually rolling out on the Google Play store.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in