The Snapchat app that turned a boss into a virtual potato and a laywer into a kitten is shutting down later this month.
From Jan. 25, Snap Camera will no longer be available for use or download, Snap quietly announced on its support page.
Introduced in 2018, the app was built to breathe new life into Twitch streams. But it really thrived during the pandemic as people grew increasingly tired of staring at their own faces for hours on end. The desktop app provided folks with fun, often silly ways to spice up Zoom conversations at the height of lockdowns—when everyone's meetings moved online and people were desperate to distract from their at-home backgrounds.
Snap did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment; the platform offered no explanation for the impending shutdown. It's easy to speculate, though, that, as more companies return to in-person work and apps (including Zoom) introduce their own built-in filters, Snap Camera simply became outmoded and redundant.
Come Jan. 25, Snap Camera will say goodbye; here's a guide for uninstalling it. If your camera source is currently Snap Camera, go to your video settings and change the camera source from Snap Camera to your camera of choice. Those who aren't ready to say goodbye to the filters can continue using Lenses on their computer with Snapchat for Web, Snap says.
That information would have been helpful nearly three years ago, when Lizet Ocampo went viral for turning herself into a virtual potato during a conference call with employees. "I yam glad this is making folks laugh at this time," Ocampo tweeted in March 2020.
Texas lawyer Rod Ponton, meanwhile, earned his 15 minutes of internet fame in 2021, when, in preparation to present a district court case, he entered a Zoom video call with a Snap Camera filter that turned him into an adorable kitten.