Periscope is testing Snapchat-like selfie masks, starting with election-themed Trump and Hillary masks, promises more advanced tools soon
As a platform that allows anyone … Napier Lopez / The Next Web : Periscope dons Snapchat-like selfie masks for election week Andrew Tarantola / Engadget : Periscope debuts Clinton and Trump masks ahead of Election Day Geoff Weiss / Tubefilter : Periscope Launches First-Ever Selfie Masks Feature Ahead Of Election Day Jordan Novet / VentureBeat : Periscope for iOS now lets you use Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump selfie masks David Emery / New Urban Legends : Russians Hacked My Crowd! Thanks: @joshconstine
Context & Ripple Effects
Periscope, the live-streaming app Twitter acquired after acquisition talks and launched in 2015 (its debut coverage), is borrowing a page from Snapchat: selfie masks overlaid on the broadcaster's face, debuting with election-themed Trump and Hillary designs timed to Election Day week.
The move lands months after Facebook bought Masquerade, the selfie-filter app, signaling that every major social platform was racing to own the face-filter layer rather than cede it to Snapchat.
First-order effects
- Periscope broadcasters on iOS can now stream wearing Clinton or Trump masks, giving the platform a timely hook for election-week live content.
- Snapchat loses its exclusivity over playful face overlays as a second major social platform ships its own version.
Second-order effects
- Facebook's Masquerade technology gives its apps a ready-made path to matching filters, pressuring Twitter to keep iterating on Periscope's promised 'more advanced tools' just to stay level.
- Snap responds by pushing further up the sophistication curve — the direction later reflected in experiments like Cameos and desktop reach through Snap Camera.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, real-time face effects become table stakes across all camera-based platforms, shifting competition from who has filters to whose filter pipeline and creative tools are most advanced.
- Election-themed masks also foreshadow synthetic-face features colliding with political content moderation, forcing platforms to decide what kinds of altered faces are acceptable around civic events.
The trend: Real-time face filters are spreading from Snapchat's signature feature into a commodity layer every social video platform must ship, with each player differentiating on tool sophistication rather than availability.