Apple Is Building a Snapchat Clone (Report)
Apple is in the process of building a video editing and sharing app that takes cues from Snapchat and Instagram, according to a Bloomberg report that quotes multiple sources familiar with the project. The app is meant to help Apple catch up in personal media, an area where it has lost ground to apps from Facebook and Snapchat.
The app, which is still in development, is supposed to give users a way to shoot and edit short videos in under one minute, according to the report. To enable easy use on the go, it is aiming to allow users to access most features with just one hand. And at least one version currently in development apparently uses the same square video style as Instagram does in its main feed, according to Bloomberg.
The video sharing app would just be one part of Apple’s renewed push for better owned-and-operated services on its iPhones. Apple has seen iPhone sales decline for the last two quarters, and new products like the Apple Watch and Apple TV have yet to make up for this trend.
Apple’s services business on the other hand is booming, thanks in part to Apple Music, which now has more than 15 million paying users. In fact, digital media, app and cloud storage revenue now has surpassed the amount of money that Apple generates with the sales of its laptops and desktop computers.
The company now wants to further grow that revenue, and also differentiate iOS from Google’s Android, with the creation of its own social media sharing apps. Apple has already revealed that the next version of iMessage will offer stickers, and is offering developers the ability to build their own apps that will plug into the messaging service, similar to the way Facebook is offering third-party integrations for Facebook Messenger.
The company’s unannounced video app could go down a similar route. However, Bloomberg is warning that Apple may decide to change course, or even can the project altogether for privacy reasons.
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