Prisma beats Facebook to Live video style transfer rollout

By Saqib Shah Published November 9, 2016

Prisma, a photo and video retouching app that’s built a cult following since its launch in June, now lets users apply its style transfers to their Facebook live broadcasts.

The move sees the Russian platform beat its larger rival to launch the real-time tech, which Facebook is currently testing on its flagship app in Ireland, and is expected to rollout soon.

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A style transfer is essentially a filter that transforms your images and videos to match the style of a famous artist’s work. Prisma’s latest Live video-centric update only works with the iPhone 6S and beyond, due to the complex processing its AI powered system requires, according to TechCrunch.

Prisma users that also happen to own the latest iPhone model can access the new function by making sure they are logged into their Facebook account via the app.

Prisma co-founder Alexey Moiseenkov, who demoed the update last month, said the following in a statement: “We are working in a direction that we always considered important. We want to change the way people communicate with each other using the most advanced and new technology. We believe, that even a small company can achieve great results.”

For a small company, Prisma is making significant strides. Having accumulated 7.5 million downloads by July, the app has now seen that figure jump to 72 million. The company claims its platform now has 2 million daily active users, with its biggest markets including the United States, India, and Russia.

The latest update comes shortly after Facebook announced its own style transfer tech for Live video. On Tuesday, Facebook revealed the AI that’s powering the features on its mobile app. Both Prisma and Facebook allow users to apply filters to live broadcasts by processing media locally on the user’s mobile device.

Despite its push to outdo Facebook, Prisma is still facing a tough battle in the long run due to the sheer size of the big blue social network.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…

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