Due to its ephermal messaging and creative editing tools, Snapchat has been leading the millenial outrage in the current times. Facebook and its family of apps(ahem! Instagram!) have started feeling the heat and have, thus, started cloning features to stay relevant. And it is now WhatsApp’s turn to join the race by picking up, exactly copying and integrating Snapchat’s photo editing tools into their app.
Though we’ve recently been waiting and caught up in the controversial arrival of GIF support in the app, Whatsapp has already moved well past that. The company has today announced that is introducing new and improved camera features that’ll allow you to write text, doodle, and add emojis to photos or videos.
Much like Snapchat, the company is now adding the much needed bling to the camera features to help you make your photos and videos more fun and communicable. To bring up the editing tools, you’ll either need to capture a new photo/video or upload one from your gallery. This will then take you to the screen shown in the image to your right.
Here you’ll have the option to add the necessary heart and dancer emojis to your photos to convey your excitement. And if you’re feeling the dog isn’t already beautiful and cute enough, add a crown and draw sparkles around it to make him feel like the king. You can also choose to add colorful text and change the font of the same, to better convey your creative thoughts.
In addition, Whatsapp hasn’t just cloned over the editing tools but also brought in support for other features in the native camera as well. It has brought alongwith it the front-facing flash that’ll illuminate your screen and face in night-time, to help you take that perfect selfie.
It has also picked up the easy video recording tools from Snapchat(and Instagram). You can now double tap to seamlessly switch between front and rear facing cameras and also just slide your finger up and down to zoom the video while recording. The only things that WhatsApp missed out are the swipable filters, geolocation tags, and facial recognition lenses(easily portable via FB-owned MSQRD). But, we may also get them soon enough!
With over a billion users currently using the messaging app, WhatsApp is first making these editing tools available to Android users around the world. Support for the same will extend to iOS user very soon, says the official blogpost.
