If you haven’t seen recent clips from the face-swapping filter Masquerade (MSQRD) in your Instagram feed, online or other social media network, then you must be living under a rock. The Masquerade app lets you overlay animated filters over your face using your phone’s front facing or back camera. Facebook has just decided it’s time to beat Snapchat at their face filter game by buying the Masquerade app, so I’d expect us to see these filters make their way to Facebook’s messenger app someday. Masquerade’s CEO Eugene Nevgen confirmed this move in a recent blog post, explaining that the company is going to “join forces with Facebook and bring the technology to even more people.”
There are no financial details on how much Facebook paid for the Masquerade. Tech Insider reports that Facebook will still keep Masquerade as a separate entity, but also has plans to bring the face-swapping tech into its own software. The Masquerade app has been available to iOS users for some time now, it recently became available to Android users just this month. If you’re wondering if the recent deal with Facebook will spoil your fun, Masquerade’s CEO assured its users that “While we will be partnering with Facebook to integrate our technology, the app will stay up and running so you’ll continue to record fun selfies and keep using the product. You can also expect us to keep adding fun features!”
