Facebook camera to optimize interactive experience with Meitu

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Chinese technology company Meitu confirmed on Wednesday that it will participate in Facebook’s AR Studio beta program as the US giant's first Asia-based partner, to work on three Augmented Reality (AR) camera effects for Facebook camera.

According to a statement by Meitu, the three effects named "Selfie from the Future" "Meitu Family" and "Instant Glam" will add "a unique, robotic eyeglass", "Meitu’s own popular cartoon characters" and some other instant filters to Facebook camera respectively.

“We are honored to be selected by Facebook to kick-off this incredible new feature, and excited to come along for the ride as the platform further reshapes the social media experience,” said Meitu's managing director of global operations, Frank Fu, in the statement.

Facebook AR Studio, announced in April during the company's developer conference F8, aims to attract artists and developers to contribute virtual overlay designs, such as animated frames and interactive effects, on real world items through the camera lens. By participating with outside talents, Facebook hopes to optimize the user experience of its camera feature.

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduces AR effects on F8 in California in April, 2017. /VCG Photo

"Meitu's fun selfie experiences make it a natural fit for the Camera Effects Platform," said Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, director, platform partnerships at Facebook, during a conference in Hong Kong. "We're excited to expand the AR Studio beta to our first Asia-based developer, and we think the camera effects that Meitu has built with this technology will delight the Facebook community around the world."

Following the image messaging application Snapchat, social media platforms including Instagram and Twitter have included interactive photo sharing features as part of their app user's experience. To catch up with the camera-crazy trend, Facebook introduced "story", an image and video sharing feature, through its apps' built-in camera function on smartphones.

And cameras is what Meitu has relied on since day one. Best known for its photo beautifying app Meitu Pic, over 1.1 billion unique mobile devices have installed its apps around the world. The company gained fame in the western world earlier this year when Meitu Pic became a social hit. People were wowed by the dramatic effects and filters provided on the app.

“Since Meitu launched its first AR-powered app in 2010, we’ve seen first-hand how the adoption of AR technology has transformed the way we interact with each other and express ourselves through the stories we share with the world,” said Fu.