Snap Camera App Shuts Down This January

Teejay Boris, Tech Times 06 January 2023, 01:01 am

Snap Camera app, which offers fancy filters to Zoom users, is shutting down this January.

The parent firm of Snapchat announced that it is killing its camera app for PC and Mac this month.

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NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 2: Signage for Snap Inc., parent company of Snapchat, adorns the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), March 2, 2017 in New York City. Snap Inc. priced its initial public offering at $17 a share on Wednesday and Snap shares will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday.

So if you have been using it to join virtual meetings with cute filters, you only have a few more days to do so. The camera app is bidding farewell before the month ends.

Snap Camera Shuts Down This January

As per a news story by The Verge, Snap revealed its plan to kill its camera app for PC and Mac, giving its users until January 25 to enjoy its features.

Snap Camera debuted in 2018, mainly for Twitch streamers. But when the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to work from the confines of their homes, it became more popular.

The camera app of Snapchat's parent brings cute cartoon filters, which users can apply while in a video conference meeting.

The options are quite limitless. It allows participants to appear in meetings as a potato or a cartoon character. They could also show up as a dog, much like how Snapchat users do it.

But as we welcome the new year, Snap Camera is abruptly ending. The support page for the camera app now says that it will "no longer be available to use or download" starting Jan. 25.

So it appears that Snap is completely cutting its support for its PC and Mac app before the first month of the year ends.

Use Snapchat for Web Instead?

According to XDA Developers, the Snap Camera support page is now telling users to use Snapchat for Web instead once the full-fledged app says goodbye.

Yes, the web version offers the same set of filters that the camera app had. However, it does not let users show up in virtual meetings as cute cartoons. Instead, it is a web version of the Snapchat app on mobile. So it is not a direct alternative to Snapchat Camera.

Zoom Filters

Despite that, it is not really the end for Zoom filters. The teleconferencing service offers cute built-in filters to its users.

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Speech and Language Therapist Alison McLoughlin conducts a therapy session with a patient using the Zoom app in the Ear, Nose and Throat department at the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital in Blackburn, north-west England on May 14, 2020, as national health service (NHS) staff in Britain fight the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

The Verge notes that Zoom provides features that let users sport cartoonish facial effects while in a meeting. If the facial filters are not enough, they could also show up as an animal avatar, which looks like Apple's Memoji.

Besides the animal avatar, the platform recently introduced human avatars, allowing users to show up in animated versions of themselves.