It’s not every day that we see an app blow up because of a social media trend. However, it looks like Zenly is experiencing a spike in popularity thanks to a growing trend on TikTok. The app has seen a 121% growth in active users since the trend gained popularity.
Source: Zenly
Zenly is an app that allows you to track other people. The app began to see a spike when the trend of showing screen recordings of your loved ones moving on the map in real-time started to gain popularity. The screen recording is accompanied by the song “Segala” by Mohd Mentor. According to Zenly, the trend helped highlight one of the app’s key features which is to allow users to “look out for loved ones and know what they are up to and ensure they are safe”. In fact, the team at Zenly confirmed that the app is frequently used by couples. Some other demographics using the app include best friends, siblings, roommates, and colleagues.
If you recognise the app’s interface, don’t be too surprised. Zenly is part of the Snap Inc family so you probably recognise the interface from the Snapchat app. The app is popular in countries like Japan, Russia, Indonesia and France.
Snapchat has always been about short-form messages and content. The platform thrives on short, temporary content that allows the platform to maintain its ethereal appeal. With their recent resurgence, the platform has been hard at work looking for brand new ways to allow Snapchatters to connect.
This time around, they’re introducing Snap Minis. These Snap Minis are personalized, short messages or content which Snapchatters can use for their interactions. These Snap Minis are taking the form of personalized messages to even sending prepaid top-ups over the app.
Source: Snapchat
The Birthday Mini allows you to wish your friends on their big day. The feature allows you to see all your friends who have allowed their birthdates to be seen on Snapchat. With this new Mini, you can send birthday wishes with unique stickers and even Lenses. If you want to, you can even set a countdown for your own birthday which will allow friends to swipe and play with the stickers and lenses in preparation for your big day.
The Givingli Mini will allow you to send a customized card to your friends – snail mail not required! Create and customize your own cards for a Birthday or any other occasion with this Mini and just send it over Snapchat once you’re done.
Source: Snapchat
The Invstr StockStars mini isn’t just for looks. It allows you to learn the basics and polish your investing know-how. Hone your skills by putting yourself to the test as a savvy investor risk-free as you invest in a virtual portfolio that mimics the stock market in real-time. You can even challenge your friends!
The most interesting Snap Mini comes courtesy of Ding. The Ding Mini allows you to surprise your friends with the gift of connectivity. It offers you discounts and even prepaid tops which you can purchase as gifts or for yourself. The Mini supports a majority of telco providers.
Source: Snapchat
Source: Snapchat
There are more Minis coming up on Snapchat with the company working with content creators and apps like Headspace, Prediction Master, and Tembo. Keep an eye out for more Snap Minis as more hit the platform in the coming weeks.
As we begin the new year and look back on 2020, it is undeniable that technology has played a crucial role in helping everyone, young or old, to stay connected with our loved ones as we experienced variations of lockdowns in the past year. However, are you aware that there are stark differences in people’s usage behaviours on social platforms, even between those who were born just a few years apart, such as millennials (currently aged 25 to 40 years old) and Gen Z (currently aged 24 or younger)?
Most millenials are digital immigrants, meaning we remember a time before mass technological adoption. This is different from Gen Zs, who are the first generation to be considered true digital natives. They were born into a world of vast technological advances, with the internet as an integral part of their day to day. They don’t know a world without smartphones and broadband internet. Hence, how they think, communicate, use and don’t use the internet is different from the generations before them.
Additionally, as people observe stay at home orders during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they are increasingly turning to indoor activities enabled by the internet; communication, commerce, entertainment, fitness, and learning now take place virtually. This will undoubtedly accelerate digital transformation across many businesses, which will in turn sustain the digital economy.
Gen Z is uniquely well-positioned to continue driving this transformation as they are digital natives familiar and comfortable with new technologies quickly. Digital technology has shaped them, and we should take a page out of the Gen Z book when it comes to some habits and practices.
Value the importance of authenticity
According to Snap Inc. and JWT Intelligence’s “Into Z Future” study, when asked to develop a slogan for their own generation, Gen Z respondents overwhelmingly suggest some variation of “be yourself” – such as “just be you”, “just be yourself”, and “do what makes you happy.” This is a positive mentality to have.
It is important that we value authenticity over ‘perfection,’ which takes courage and confidence. We should not fear judgement or being perceived negatively for being who we are, especially when we are among friends. Honesty is a value that the majority of Malaysians, regardless of their age group, want between themselves and their best friend. The 2019 Friendship Report found that Malaysians want their best friends to be more honest and open about their feelings.
Before we can demand honesty from our friends, we need to first be our true, honest, and authentic self! After all, friendship is a two-way street – Gen Zs seem to have figured that part out.
Not everything is meant to be shared
According to Snap Inc.’s 2019 Friendship Report, millennials come out on top as the most “share happy” of the generations. Millennials are the least likely to say “I wouldn’t share that” across most categories surveyed including their love life, mental health issues, and money concerns. However, oversharing can have negative consequences, such as safety issues, loss of jobs, or risking personal reputation.
As digital natives, Gen Zs are likely to be more private, having learned from the mistakes made by the older generations. Gen Zs’ familiarity with these platforms means that they carefully choose how and where they share. They prefer ephemeral content that disappears, on social messaging platforms such as Snapchat. For example, they prefer to share details about their love life with their best friends over private messages as compared to millennials who would share about it on social media.
Gen Zs understand implicitly that just because we can share something with the world, it doesn’t mean that we should. This is a mindset that we should all adopt.
Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to friendship circle
Gen Zs are adjusting their approach to friendship, which differs from millennials’ desire for a wide network. The former is looking for more closeness and intimacy with a smaller social circle, where they can be their unfiltered, authentic selves. In contrast, millennials are the most likely of any generation to want “as many friends as possible.”
This is the same in Malaysia, where older generations gravitate towards forming friendships with as many people as possible, while Gen Zs (37%) are selective over the people they let into their close circle of friends.
While we all know the positive benefits of having close friends in our lives, a larger pool is not always better. According to friendship experts, a larger group of friends can take a toll on a person because there is greater pressure to open up to many different people and invest in those relationships. It seems that this is a life lesson that Gen Zs have already learned. Based on the above, we can see that there are a lot to be learned from different mindsets, and generation gaps do not just have to be a woeful reminder of “the good old days.” Look at things in a new light and shed your preconceived notions
You remember Snapchat right? Well, they have been improving and updating their app with new features to keep you more engaged and also ensure you’re connected with your pals even though you may not be meeting face to face.
It comes as no surprise that people love astrology and Snapchat is looking to make astrology even more accessible via their app. They are introducing a brand new feature called an Astrological Profile. With this new feature, you can find out your personality traits according to your horoscope. The app will bring up a detailed astrology profile based on your birthdate and horoscope.
In addition to your personal profiles, Snapchat is also allowing you to get to know yourself and your friends better with a compatibility reading between you and any other person you know who has set up their astrological profile. You’ll be able to tell if they have when you see a purple icon beside their Snap score. The readings will be presented in stories format and will take into consideration 10 different planetary dimensions.
Source: Snapchat
Snapchat has partnered with Cosmopolitan US’s astrologer, Aurora Tower, to ensure that the information provided in these features are accurate. Users who activate the feature will receive a daily analysis of your zodiac sign which is believed to factor into your personality and other dimensions of your life.
The Astrological profile will take into consideration ten different astrological elements: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto, Uranus. The information is then condensed into an Astrology Profile Summary. You can send these snaps to your friends or post it up on your story.
This new features is available in the latest version of Snapchat on iOS and Android.
A little while back, the team at techENT had the privilege of catching up with Nana Murugesan, Managing Director for International Markets at Snap Inc. and Ba Blackstock, CEO of Bitmoji at Snap Inc. The interview was done shortly after the launch of Bitmoji TV. Snap had acquired Bitstrips, the company that owned Bitmoji, back in 2016 for a healthy USD$64.2 million.
During this interview, techENT posed questions to Nana and Ba regarding Snapchat and also Bitmoji TV. In particular, how the new integration will benefit and change the scene for Snapchat. Here’s the full interview text.
techENT: Looking back a little bit, Snapchat had a boom in the social media space with its unique offering of creating “disappearing” content. When Facebook introduced its own with Stories across its apps, the drop in users on Snapchat was heavily reported. What has changed with Snapchat and how have users responded to this?
NanaMurugesan: First of all, Snapchat isn’t social media. From the very beginning we designed Snapchat to enhance your experience outside of the app and reflect the way that people have interacted with their best friends, long before the creation of the smartphone. To a certain extent, this was a reaction to what we were seeing on social media and the issues these platforms face. So just like in real life, your conversations with your friends disappear and your stories unfold in chronological order.
Bitmoji of Nana Murugesan
While other platforms may now have these features, their underlying philosophy is very different. On Snapchat, people are free to be themselves, with their real friends. There have never been likes or comments, so it feels like less of a competition. That way, Snapchatters aren’t pressured to be pretty, perfect or popular; and we don’t stockpile data so our community doesn’t have to worry that everything they send will be kept for eternity. Snapchat also opens directly to the camera and over 3.5 billion Snaps are created each day.
We’re focused on creating engaging experiences through which our community can stay close with their real friends and when not chatting or Snapping with those they love. For example, we introduced Snap Games last year and recently launched Bitmoji TV.
techENT: What is the user base for Snapchat now?
NanaMurugesan: We are really happy to see a continuous growth in our Daily Active Users. During our last earnings call (Q4, Feb 2020), we shared that there are 218 million people on average, globally using Snapchat every day. This is a 17% year over year growth (31M).
Bitmoji of Nana Murugesan
techENT: What are some of the new features that users are crazy about on Snapchat?
Nana Murugesan: Apart from Bitmoji TV, we’ve been finding all sorts of ways to let Snapchatters have fun with their Bitmoji. So far, Bitmoji Stories have been a hit amongst users, with an average of 18 million viewers per comic strip. Created as a personalised comic that features the Bitmoji of Snapchatters and their friends, it also eventually became the inspiration behind Bitmoji TV.
Bitmoji of Nana Murugesan
We’ve also since introduced several games that feature your Bitmoji such as Bitmoji Tennis, a battle-royale style game called Tiny Royale, and recently we released Ready Chef Go, a co-op cooking game played with your friends and Color Galaxy – where you can conquer the galaxy together.
Adding to more shareable moments, Snapchat also launched Cameos in December which lets you put your face on animated memes and short GIFs that also feature you and your friends.
While Lenses aren’t a new feature, both Snapchat’s internal team and Snapchat’s Official Lens Creators are constantly creating new, innovative and fun lenses that are loved by many Snapchatters. In fact, every day over 70% of Snapchatters play with AR Lenses, and over 600,000 Lenses have been created by our community through Lens Studio.
techENT: Snap Inc, Snapchat’s parent company, acquired Bitstrips back in 2017. What was the strategy behind the acquisition?
Ba Blackstock: In late 2014 Bitstrips launched Bitmoji, which surged in popularity in 2015, becoming a cultural phenomenon. It resonated with people because it gave them a way to represent themselves in their online interactions that felt more personal, authentic and fun.
Bitmoji of Ba Blackstock
The massive popularity of Bitmoji led to a conversation with Snap, in which we realised that our companies shared the same passion for creativity, self-expression and visual communication, so it seemed like a natural fit to join forces.
Through the acquisition we were able to use Bitmoji to bring a new kind of visual identity and expression into Snapchat, and to grow Bitmoji to become bigger than ever before. Since joining Snap Bitmoji has been the #1 iOS app in over 100 countries.
techENT: Have any of Bitstrip’s Bitmoji features been introduced in Snapchat? How popular/well-received is Bitmoji since their introduction?
Ba Blackstock: Bitmoji has transformed the experience within Snapchat by becoming Snapchatters’ visual identity in the app, as well as giving them lots of new ways to communicate and express themselves – from stickers in chat, to geofilters on Snaps, to 3D Bitmojis in AR lenses, to Bitmoji Stories in Discover.
Bitmoji of Ba Blackstock
Bitmoji has proven to be incredibly popular and over 70% of Snapchatters now have a Bitmoji.
techENT: Tell us what is Bitmoji TV.
Ba Blackstock: Bitmoji TV is a fully animated show starring your own Bitmoji, that you can watch now on Snapchat – with new episodes coming out every Saturday morning. Each episode is between 3-5 minutes long and makes your Bitmoji the main character, alongside celebrity guest stars like Andy Richter, Jon Lovitz and Riki Lindhome, to name a few.
Bitmoji of Ba Blackstock
The premise of Bitmoji TV is that you are the biggest new star on TV – you’ve been cast in every show, every movie, every commercial, and each episode is a fast-paced combo of very different scenes. One minute you’ll see yourself in an action movie, the next minute you’re in a soap opera, then you’re in a sitcom. We’ve created our own animation style that is an audiovisual feast for the senses, with you at the center.
techENT: What sets Bitmoji TV apart from other platforms such as IGTV and YouTube? / Why introduce another platform in a space that seems so crowded?
Ba Blackstock: Bitmoji TV represents the beginning of an entirely new category of entertainment – a personalized experience that is unique for every single viewer. It’s also one of the first fully animated shows that’s designed to be viewed on your phone, in the vertical format. We had to build our own experimental animation and rendering technology to make it possible for this show to exist. But more than that, it’s a new experience that you can share with your friends that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
Bitmoji of Ba Blackstock
Bitmoji TV represents the beginning of an entirely new category of entertainment – a personalized experience that is unique for every single viewer. It’s also one of the first fully animated shows that’s designed to be viewed on your phone, in the vertical format. We had to build our own experimental animation and rendering technology to make it possible for this show to exist. But more than that, it’s a new experience that you can share with your friends that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
techENT: What type of content can we expect from Bitmoji TV?
Ba Blackstock: Bitmoji TV makes you the star of just about every type of TV show imaginable – talent shows, cop shows, sitcoms, soap operas, action movies and more. Every episode is different and is a fast-paced collection of various shows, as seen through the lens of Bitmoji’s unique sense of humour.
