Snapchat update: Users can swap faces with pictures on phone

Courtesy Mashable

Face swapping has to be one of the creepiest, most popular Snapchat trends of 2016, but until now, users haven’t easily been able to tell just what they’d look like with Taylor Swift’s face.

With its latest iOS update, released Thursday, Snapchat will now allow you to face swap with a photo from your phone’s camera roll, meaning all those celebrity screen shots will be good for something.

The update will also allow users to replay any snap once for free — an extension of something Snapchat first introduced in 2013 that let users replay one snap per day. It’s a walk back from a previous paid feature the company introduced in late 2015, which allowed three additional replays of individual snaps for $0.99.

It looks like the company is moving away from small user payments as a form of revenue across platforms, noting on its support page that as of April 21, users can no longer purchase additional replays. Those with credit remaining will still be able to use it, however.

This reporter is currently on Android, but a colleague using iOS reported the tool is easy to use: Just tap and hold on your face until a lattice forms, and then scroll through the face swapping options until you see a new purple icon that will let you swap with images on your phone’s camera roll. The app’s facial recognition technology will look for photos with recognisable faces, however, so you won’t be able to swap with last night’s dinner.

Needless to say, the Internet was into it.

Snapchat would probably appreciate if its users were distracted by this new update, which comes just days after a highly ill-advised “Bob Marley” filter that was released for 420.