Snapchat's Friendship Time Capsule to help re-ignite lost friendships due to COVID-19

Snapchat launches The Friendship Time Capsule to help re-ignite lost friendships during the pandemic.

The tool allows friends that can not be together in person, to create new shared memories through AR on Snapchat.

The Snappable uses machine learning to allow friends to get a glimpse of their friendship in a variety of scenarios in the future.

Snapchatters open up the Friendship Time Capsule and take a selfie, select a year, then send it to a friend. The new feature puts them both into a series of scenarios together - including visiting the Moon, and Mars - from today up to 2120.

It also uses Snap’s advanced machine learning technology to age friends up depending on the year.

The Friendship Time Capsule was created to combat some of the difficulties friendships are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Snap's recently released Friendship Report showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to over a third of friendships (globally) being affected in some way. With just over half of those affected saying that it has led to them not feeling as close to their friends (53%).

Almost half of those surveyed (49%) said that being unable to see their friends has made them feel lonelier, with only a third feeling that their friends are reaching out to them as much as they would like (30%). In fact, a third of people (31%) felt that social distancing has weakened their relationships with friends.

Looking at data from prior to the pandemic, Snap found that the single event most likely to strengthen a friendship, was taking a vacation together (64%).

Without being able to do that now, Snap wanted to create a way to support our community, and imitate this through AR, allowing Snapchatters to share positive thoughts with their friends about where they will go together in the future.

And in terms of friends who are no longer in touch, Snap found the ways people would most like to reach out, is through a photo of them and their friend together (42%), or by sending a photo that reminded them of a shared memory (40%). Humour also ranked highly, with a third thinking that sending a funny meme or GIF would be the best way to reconnect (31%).

The Friendship Time Capsule combines all three of these things; by allowing Snapchatters to share silly images of them and a friend in outlandish locations and at different ages, hopefully to bridge the gap for those that have lost touch.

Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi used the feature to reach out to childhood friend Adam Warrington, saying: “Adam is one of my oldest pals from back home, we started off together playing shows out and about in tiny venues in Scotland.

"He’s an incredible guitar player and is usually off playing around the world with Yungblud now!

"It’s nice to have someone you grew up with going on to do amazing things and more so than ever, now is the best time to stay in touch with old friends.”