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Snapchat Rolls Out A Dual Camera Feature

Pictured: Sumit Adhikari
By Sumit Adhikari
August 30, 2022
Featured image for Snapchat Rolls Out A Dual Camera Feature

Snapchat is adding a dual camera feature to its in-app camera. It lets you capture photos and videos with the front and rear cameras simultaneously. The company first announced this feature in April, during its Partner Summit.

Dual Camera was originally announced as part of Snapchat’s new suite of creator tools called director mode. It includes a TikTok-like green screen feature, support for quick editing of multiple snaps at once, and a bunch of other advanced tools that let creators polish their content. While director mode has yet to release, Snapchat is gaining Dual Camera support this week.

You can access Dual Camera from within the main Snapchat camera. Look for the new icon in the camera toolbar. Selecting it will show a live feed from the front and back cameras on the screen at the same time. You can choose to capture photos or record videos. The app offers four different layouts for your content. There’s a vertical split-screen-type layout where the footage from the two cameras appears on either half of the screen.

If your content doesn’t suit that, Snapchat lets you switch to a horizontal layout where the two cameras are placed next to each other. The other two options include picture-in-picture and cutout. The latter gives some sort of green screen effect. Dual Camera also supports music, stickers, and Snapchat’s augmented reality (AR) lenses.

Snapchat’s Dual Camera feature is particularly suited for videos than photos. You can record live action with the back camera and your reaction to it with the front camera at once. The feature is rolling out to iOS users this week. The company says Android users will get it in the coming months.

Snapchat adds Dual Camera ahead of Instagram

Snapchat isn’t the first social media app to offer simultaneous recording with front and back cameras. While the concept has been around for years, it has been recently popularized by up-and-coming photo-sharing app BeReal. It encourages people to share photos of their real selves without any effects or editing. Your friends randomly challenge you to click and post a picture within two minutes. BeReal’s camera app only offers two buttons, one for capturing and the other for switching to the Dual Camera mode.

Instagram is copying this concept by BeReal with a new feature called Candid Challenges. This feature is currently in development and offers the same functionality as BeReal, including support for dual cameras. We expect to hear more about Instagram’s Candid Challenges in the coming weeks.

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