While the hype surrounding NFTs has gone down significantly since late September of 2021, some social platforms are still exploring ways to integrate them, thus enabling users to display these digital assets in new ways within various apps.
Snapchat looks to be the latest to jump aboard the NFT trend, with The Financial Times reporting that the company is now investigating a new process that would enable users to convert their owned NFTs into AR Lenses, which could then be inserted into their Snaps. While the idea of NFTs grows a bit bland, the concept behind this integration sounds brilliant.
Digitized Virtual Currency
The process would essentially allow users to display 3D versions of their NFTs, where applicable, and use them as either a virtual face mask, a background item, an additional object in the frame, and more. While it may sound like a fairly light integration of NFTs compared to, say, Twitter or Instagram, where users can basically showcase their owned items, it has its own unique spin on Snapchat in that they transform into interactive elements within Snap’s AR environments.
More importantly, Snap’s integration moves your display options into its AR tools, which is where Snap’s looking to link into the next stage of digital connection. While Meta focuses on its Metaverse and VR, Snap’s pinning its future on AR development and the integration of physical and digital worlds, in many ways.
In this sense, given the boom in AR and with the coming of its AR glasses, Snap’s NFT integration plan could actually be more significant than other options. Rather than bridging what would be Web3 applications, Snap is looking a step ahead, which might position it well to capitalize on the rising market for digital goods, as opposed to pinning them to what will likely become legacy items.
While the current NFT offerings may not end up being as big an element in the next stage as some would have liked, there’s clearly a solid business case for digital items – buying and selling things like digital clothes for your avatars, tools you can access across different games and worlds, digital jewelry, and other items which basically yell ‘Showboat’.
The Wrap
The whole bragging rights aspect to NFTs is already the case in Titles like Fortnite and Roblox, where users display their personality and presence via different character skins and add-on items that reflect either their skill and experience or just the downright wealth of the real-world player behind the glamorous avatar.
Compared to that, hand-drawn pictures almost feel like a misguided attempt to connect to this shift. Fortunately, talk rumors that there will be a more advanced market for digital items sometime in the future. When that time comes, NFTs would have become a major industry.
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