Snapchat Could Use Augmented Reality to Differentiate From Facebook, Instagram (Watch)

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How do you compete with huge brands like Facebook and Instagram? Well, if you’re Snapchat, you acquire new technology startups.

Snap Inc., the company that owns Snapchat, just acquired Cimagine, an augmented reality firm based in Israel. Right now, Cimagine mainly makes tools for home retailers and manufacturers. The idea is to provide ways for customers to create a virtual space where they can move around furniture, change paint or wall colors and just see how new products might look in their space before they buy.

Of course, that’s probably not what Snapchat is planning on using the technology for. But for now, it’s all speculation. Augmented reality is still an evolving sector of the tech industry. But there are plenty of possibilities for innovative new features.

And since Facebook, Instagram and other social sharing sites and apps have recently introduced new features that seem eerily similar to those of Snapchat, the company has to do something to keep up.

Competing with big names like Facebook certainly isn’t easy. Snapchat doesn’t have as many resources or users. So if it falls behind in any way, it probably won’t take much for the remaining users to simply switch over to another platform entirely.

Use Innovation as a Competitive Advantage

But for now, Snapchat is taking an unexpected approach. And if it can use innovation as a competitive advantage, it might be able to stay ahead of the curve, even when competing with those big names.

Image: CIMAGINE