Written by Joey Peng, Benn Tan and Erasmus William.

Snapchat Supports COVID-19 Relief with AR Lens

With the ongoing current pandemic, Snapchat launched a new Lens experience that uses an advanced image recognition system to trigger a new World Health Organization visual when you scan a currency note.

Users will be able to scan 23 international currency notes across 33 countries to bring up an AR visualization of how donations support the World Health Organization’s immediate response efforts to track the spread of COVID-19 – ensuring patients get the care they need and providing frontline workers with critical supplies. Snapchatters can then easily donate and encourage friends to do the same.

At any time, during this AR Experience, users can also tap a ‘More’ button, which will take them through to the WHO website. With this being said, Snap’s camera can now identify a wide range of objects (including different currencies!) This could potentially open up more ad opportunities in future, with potential for customers to scan products or logos to access AR experiences that can tie in with special offers, exclusively available in-app.

Twitter Sees Remarkable Spike in Gaming Conversations

With the Coronavirus climate keeping people home, many are turning to video games as a form of entertainment. As a result, Twitter has seen a huge surge in gaming conversations over the last two weeks of March. A reported 71% increase in gaming-related conversations saw up to almost a 38% increase in unique authors engaged.

In the United States specifically, there was an astounding 89% increase in gaming conversation with a  50% increase in unique authors engaged. This increase can be said to be directly linked to the pandemic as most other outlets for entertainment have been restricted.

Below are their findings in ranking:

The 10 most-tweeted-about games globally so far this year:

  1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  2. Fate/Grand Order
  3. Final Fantasy
  4. Ensemble Stars!
  5. Fortnite
  6. Monster Strike
  7. Granblue Fantasy
  8. Identity V
  9. Minecraft
  10. Knives Out

The most-tweeted-about games the US over the past 30 days:

  1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  2. Call of Duty
  3. Final Fantasy
  4. Fortnite
  5. Fire Emblem
  6. Doom
  7. Super Mario
  8. NBA 2K
  9. Overwatch
  10. The Legend of Zelda

Countries tweeting the most about Animal Crossing:

  1. Japan
  2. United States
  3. Korea
  4. France
  5. Spain

The most-tweeted-about esports teams over the last 30 days:

  1. @FaZeClan
  2. @G2Esports
  3. @ibr
  4. @FNATIC
  5. @Could9
  6. @T1
  7. @TeamLiquid
  8. @Luminosity
  9. @paiNGaming
  10. @TSM

Instagram Adds A New Stay Home Sticker to Promote COVID-19 Containment Efforts

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact millions of people’s everyday lives, Instagram has launched a new cause sticker for Stories which aims to highlight the importance of social distancing, and staying home to limit the spread of COVID-19.

To use this sticker just add the Stay Home sticker to your story, tap on it to switch to the #IStayHomeFor option and proceed to tag who you are staying home for. 

According to the platform, the new Sticker encourages you to share “how you’re staying home and staying safe.” Instagram hopes that by doing so it encourages the younger generation to spread their knowledge of those that are more prone to the virus

In efforts to support those in need, Instagram’s CEO – Adam Moressi also responded to a user request to switch up the “Ask me a question” sticker with “How can I help?” to bring awareness to the current situation.

Disclaimer: Featured image taken from The Verge.