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Snapchat wants to integrate NFTs and Augmented Reality (AR)
According to reports in the Financial Times, it appears that Snap plans to want to integrate NFTs into Snapchat and to do so it will start experiments and tests with a limited group of creator artists in August.
Basically, the company will evaluate how to make NFTs into AR filters or lenses on Snapchat, and let artists create and mint NFTs on another platform, and then import them into Snapchat as lenses.
The process described would essentially allow users to view three-dimensional versions of their NFTs, where possible, and use them as a virtual face mask (a common use case for PFP projects), as a background element, as an additional object in the frame, and more.
In this sense, and given the expected boom in AR with the arrival of AR glasses, Snap’s NFT integration plan may be more significant than the other options.
Snapchat and social networks using NFTs
Snapchat is yet another social network that is looking to join the NFT trend, despite the long “crypto winter” the industry has been experiencing.
Indeed, starting with Twitter, which allowed its users in early 2022 to use NFTs as their profile picture, Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit have since joined in.
Specifically, six months after the Twitter launch, it appears that users who have joined the NFT initiative as a profile image have increased from 9,000 people in February to 28,000 in June.
As for Instagram, on the other hand, CEO Adam Mosseri had announced in May the first phase of NFT testing regarding artwork from a small number of the social’s US users.
The Non-Fungible Tokens tested by the social network were based on Ethereum, Polygon and also Flow and Solana.
Reddit and the launch of the Avatar NFT marketplace on Polygon
Recently, Reddit has also been part of the trend and launched its NFT Avatar marketplace, developed on Polygon Blockchain, for use as profile pictures.
Unlike Snapchat, which wants to use AR, Reddit is simply giving artists the ability to create, mint their NFTs and monetize by selling them on the platform.
Each NFT Avatar will have a fixed price and can be purchased with fiat currencies, without the need for crypto wallets, and will soon be available in limited edition on Reddit Avatar Builder.