April 16, 2018
Facebook Stories haven’t exactly taken off, particularly in comparison to Instagram, however the platform isn’t giving up, and have recently added two new features that could take Facebook Stories from mediocre to masterful.
Facebook have access to AR driven digital object detection and spatial recognition tools, and they’re making use of these by allowing users to create 3D, hand-drawn objects. You can draw on the screen and this image will then be added into the virtual environment within your photo. Sound familiar? This feature is reminiscent of Snapchat’s advanced World Lenses objects. However, the difference is that the Facebook option allows you to create your own drawing and it detects the shape of real-world platforms, making the finish appear more realistic than that of the Snapchat tools which are more restricted to defined objects.
John Barnett, Product Manager at Facebook Camera stated, “we’re seeing that people enjoy drawing on top of the photos they take; 3D drawing is a new feature that uses augmented reality to let people actually draw in their world”.
Added to this, Facebook’s jumped on the boomerang bandwagon, and users can make use of everyone’s favourite Instagram feature when taking videos with Facebook’s in-app camera. It is good to see that Facebook are still pushing their Story feature despite the lack of users engaging with it. The new features they’re offering do provide something different in comparison to other platforms as the AR feature isn’t available on Instagram or Snapchat, so let’s hope these new updates increase the popularity of Facebook Stories.