Snap, the creator of the Snapchat messaging app, has long positioned itself as a camera company.
Thursday it revealed a flying one. Called Pixy, the drone camera can help people take selfies without the help of a selfie stick. Users hold the pocket-sized camera in their palms and select a flight mode via a dial on the body of the device. The gadget then flies for a minute, takes photos and videos that it downloads to the user’s personal Snapchat drive before landing back in the user’s palm.
“It gives you a totally new perspective, allows you to have fun and hang out with your family and make videos together,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in an interview.
Pixy is Snap’s first hardware product since Spectacles, a pair of glasses with built-in cameras and augmented reality features. Spectacles debuted in 2016 with hour-long lines, but ultimately underperformed. In 2021, Snap released a new version of Spectacles that allows people to see augmented reality filters overlaid on the physical world.
Snap sells Pixy for $229.99, with additional batteries for $19.99 and a dual battery charger for $49.99. The company said it plans to sell the camera “while supplies last” in the United States and France.
In 2020, Amazon also announced: a flying camera, the $249 Ring Always Home Cam. The surveillance drone flies around the owner’s home, recording video, ostensibly for security purposes. It was immediately pilloried on social media as a privacy hazard.
Mr Spiegel said he was not familiar with Amazon’s product. He said Snap’s flying camera wasn’t a privacy issue, as the bright yellow color, shooting light, and engine noises make it stand out.
“I don’t think there are any privacy concerns when it comes to recording other people without their knowledge,” he said.
Snap announced Pixy alongside a range of augmented reality products — which overlap filters and visual effects on the real world — at its annual developer and advertiser event. It also introduced new tools for businesses that allow shoppers to virtually try out their products. Snap said people have interacted with its augmented reality shopping products five billion times since January 2021.
“We see our greatest opportunity over time to really reinvent the camera,” said Mr. Mirror. “Pixy is a continuation of these experiments and innovation around what the camera is capable of.”
