Snapchat is the most recent app to include dual camera functionality. The app is launching the “Dual Camera” recording feature that was previewed earlier this year at its Partner Summit.
The update allows users to take photos and videos with both their phone’s front-facing and rear cameras at the same time. It’s now available on iOS for iPhone XS and later. (According to Snap, Dual Camera will not be available on Android for several months.)
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The feature was first teased by the company in April, when it said it would be part of a suite of more advanced features for creators called “director mode.”
While director mode has yet to be released — Snap says it will be in the coming months — the company chose to launch Dual camera as a standalone feature in the main Snapchat camera.
Capturing content with both devices’ cameras at the same time isn’t a new idea — the briefly popular app Frontback experimented with it nearly a decade ago — but the concept has gained traction in recent months with the rise of selfie app BeReal.
However, Snapchat’s approach to the feature differs from that of the other apps, which were more focused on selfies.
Users who enable Snapchat’s Dual Camera feature can record video with both cameras at the same time and change the layout of the two clips.
There’s a split-screen mode that puts each camera on one half of the screen, a picture-in-picture mode, and a cutout mode that looks like TikTok’s green screen.
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Dual Camera mode also supports Snapchat’s augmented reality lenses, though the effects can only be applied after the fact for the time being.
Snap isn’t the only company testing dual-camera recording. Instagram is also testing a dual camera setup called Candid Challenges, which was confirmed last week as a “internal prototype.”
For the time being, that feature appears to be a direct copy of BeReal, but it’s not impossible to imagine it appearing in Reels as well.
