News: Snapchat Refocuses on Its Camera & AR Magic in New Marketing Push

With a fresh series of videos and a new webpage, Snapchat has composed an answer to its own question, "What is Snapchat?"

In short, its answer is that "Snapchat is a camera." In an extended commercial (below) accompanying the new webpage, it's evident that the camera does quite a bit in AR as well.

Snapchat followed up that commercial today with 10 tutorial videos explaining how to use its many features, including its AR Lenses. The Bitmoji tutorial also reminds users that their cartoon likenesses can also come to life in AR.

The first quarter has not been particularly kind to Snapchat, highlighted by an acrimonious backlash to its redesigned iOS and Android apps.

At its nadir, the backlash resulted in the cratering of its stock value with one tweet from a celebrity user. However, the backlash also ironically sparked a spike in downloads from people curious to know what all the fuss was about.

The timing of the "What is Snapchat?" campaign could not be more transparent, as Snapchat seeks to assuage frustrated users and convince the nosy onlookers to stick around. However, with the Snap, Inc. quarterly earnings call right around the corner, investors may be seeking answers to a different set questions.

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