Twitchcon 2018

Squad Stream-

Twitch streamers who regularly play games like Fortnite, PUBG or Destiny 2 are  all streaming together, but their content is split between multiple streams. Viewers never get the whole show. With Squad Stream, Twitch is hoping to change that. Starting later this year, streamers will be able to “squad up” and simultaneously share all four of their broadcasts in a single viewer. Viewers will be able to seamlessly swap between channels and follow along with the chat of whichever stream they’ve selected as their main view.

Snapchat filters

Even if Snapchat’s user numbers continue to decline, their use of filters has become a hallmark of online communication in recent years. That’s why the company launched Snap Cam today, an app that brings all those filters to your computer’s webcam. Not only is it a fun idea, it was announced at TwitchCon.

Thanks to a custom Twitch extension, Streamers will be able to integrate Snapchat lenses into their streams.

Twitch Sings — a video game designed for streaming

Community may be essential to the DNA of Twitch, but most video games are designed to be played, not watched. Twitch Sings hopes to change that — the social streaming platform teamed up with Harmonix to create a new karaoke game designed for livestreaming.

Instagram Beats Out Snapchat As The Most Used App Among American Teens

• Instagram has surpassed Snapchat as the most used app among American teens surveyed by the investment bank Piper Jaffray.
• The bank’s latest semiannual survey of teens found that 85% of respondents said they used Instagram at least once a month, compared with 84% who said they used Snapchat the same amount.
• Overall, Snapchat and Instagram were the two most used apps among the surveyed teens, with Twitter and Facebook trailing behind.
• The survey found that 85% of teens said they used Instagram at least once a month, while 84% said they used Snapchat at least once a month. This is the first time Instagram surpassed Snapchat in Piper Jaffray’s survey dating back to spring 2016. The company reported 1 billion active monthly users in June.

New Research On Teens Suggest

Teens’ social media use has increased dramatically. Today, 70 percent of teens report using social media more than once a day. In 2012, that number was 34 percent.

Most American teenagers have a smartphone. The number of teens with a smartphone more than doubled since 2012, from 41 percent up to 89 percent. Looking at only 13- to 14-year-olds, 84 percent now have a smartphone, and 93 percent have some type of mobile device such as a tablet.

Facebook is out. Instagram and Snapchat are in. But you probably already knew this. One 16-year-old participant, when asked in the study whom she does communicate with on Facebook, replied, “My grandparents.”

Fifty-seven percent agree that using social media often distracts them when they should be doing homework. Overall, teens’ preference for face-to-face communication has fallen, while more and more teens are choosing social media and video-chatting as a favorite way to communicate.

Many teens seem to recognize that social media platforms are designed to keep them hooked. Seventy-two percent believe that tech companies manipulate users to spend more time on their devices.

Nevertheless, many teens say that using social media has a positive effect on how they feel about themselves. Teens were more likely to say that social media has a positive rather than a negative effect on how they feel (though most say it doesn’t make much difference one way or the other).

3. Recognize the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL).

Common knowledge tells us that teens’ social-emotional well-being is important to their overall health and ability to learn. But, the study reveals, it also has a big impact on how teens view their interactions on social media.

Cosmetic Surgeons Say More Patients Requesting To Look Like touched Up Snapchat & Instagram Photos

Plastic surgeons say patients are coming to them with selfies of themselves edited using the filters on Snapchat or Instagram and asking to look more like the retouched photo.

Researchers at the Boston medical center have authored an article in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, which labels the trend “Snapchat dysmorphia” and argues that filters on apps are having a disastrous impact on people’s self-esteem.

Snapchat comes with a range of filters that immediately distort photos using artificial intelligence. They can make skin appear smoother, lashes look longer and bone structure appear more angular.

The report says these filters are sometimes triggering body dysmorphic disorder, a mental illness that leads to compulsive tendencies such as excessive beauty procedures, wasting hours obsessing over non-existent flaws and withdrawing from social activities.

This trend is really concerning to doctors because filters on Snapchat provide not just idealistic standards of beauty but entirely unhuman ones, presenting “an unattainable look and are blurring the line of reality and fantasy for these patients”, according to the report.

Separately from patients specifically trying to look like their selfies, over half of plastic surgeons also report patients saying that they are seeking procedures so they can look better in selfies, according to the report.

Airbrushed, unrealistic representations of women in fashion magazines have been blamed for the increasing incidences of eating disorders and body dysmorphia in women and teenage girls. Third-party apps like Line Camera and Facetune gave users easy tools to make their faces appear thinner, more symmetrical and blemish-free, before posting them to Facebook. 

The new report revealed that the kinds of facial surgery people are requesting has changed too. Previously, nose jobs were the most common request, but today people specifically want procedures that will have effects similar to selfie filters, such as nasal and facial symmetry, rhinoplasties, hair transplants and eyelid surgical procedures.

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 A photo of Frida Kahlo that Snapchat created for International Women’s Day in 2017, which was criticised for lightening her skin and making her features appear more symmetrical. Composite: Alamy & Snapchat

Facebook To lose 2 Million Gen Z Users To Snapchat This Year According To eMarketer

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The 12-to-24-year-olds, are flocking to Snapchat to escape their parents and grandparents. 

Facebook’s struggle to retain young users is more severe than ever before. The social networking giant is losing users to Snapchat faster than ever. In 2018, Facebook is estimated to lose two million users aged 24 or below, while Snapchat is expected to gain 1.9 million in this age bracket, reveals a new forecast by eMarketer.

 In 2018, less than half of Americans aged between 12 and 17 will use Facebook at least once a month, says eMarketer. Facebook usage among under-12s will decline 9.3 percent, while the 12-to-17 and 18-to-24 age brackets will witness a 5 percent drop.

In the past, Facebook users who dropped out were migrating to Facebook-owned Instagram. But now, they are flocking to Snapchat.

Snapchat has refreshed its app to make it more user-friendly. It now has separate pages for brand stories, which makes it easier for users to spot content from their friends. eMarketer estimates that Snapchat will have more users than Instagram in the attractive 12-24 age bracket. 

In fact, Snapchat could even see increased interest from older groups now.

Debra Aho Williamson, Principal Analyst at eMarketer, said: “Snapchat could eventually experience more growth in older age groups, since it’s redesigning its platform to be easier to use.” 

Facebook’s monthly user growth is now being driven by older groups. It is often the first taste of social media for the older populace. In some Western markets, Facebook has already been dubbed the social network for oldies, while Instagram and Snapchat are sought-after destinations for millennials. In fact, a lot of kids and adolescents are fleeing Facebook to escape their parents and grandparents.

 Snapchat is getting criticism that the new interface is difficult to navigate.

 

Snapchat still dominates among teenagers, a core demographic that represents the future wave of internet consumers and what they care about. Some 79 percent of U.S. 13- to 18-year-olds surveyed said they have a Snapchat account, more than any other type of social media. Of that age group, 73 percent have an Instagram account, and just 57 percent say they are on Facebook.

Snapchat’s Camera Sun Glasses

On Friday, , startup revealed Spectacles, a $130 pair of stylish sunglasses outfitted with a camera that with a tap of a button near the hinge can record up to 10 seconds of video at a time.

The one-size-fits-all glasses, which come in black, teal or coral and will be available this fall in limited quantities, are designed to connect to a smartphone so Snapchat users easily can share videos through the app.

The company also changed its corporate name to Snap Inc.

About 150 million people use Snapchat daily during which more than 10 billion videos are viewed, according to the company.

Snapchat’s domination with younger audiences has helped the company earn an $18 billion valuation from investors, garner buzz among big-brand advertisers such as PepsiCo Inc., and strike partnerships with media companies such as BuzzFeed Inc. and The Wall Street Journal.