Profile of Snap Research
“Streaks!”, you might have received random images with this caption on a certain yellow app. Why? Just to receive the fire emoji with a high number beside your best buds’ names for the fun of it. But, Snap isn’t just a fun innovative app where you can record videos, take pictures, and message your friends, there is another side called Snap Research. Snap Research is an institution that focuses on innovation. These projects include solutions to hard technical problems, as well as riskier projects.
Snap research invents, as well as studies technologies that allow people to connect and collaborate in new and different ways. This is achieved by building prototypes, launching experimental products, and studying how people use them to guide future technology investments. Snap Research publishes and shares its insight with the research community at different venues: CHI, Ubicomp, UIST, and CSCW. Significant Otter: Understanding the Role of Biosignals in Communication and AdverTiming Matters: Examining User Ad Consumption for Effective Ad Allocations on Social Media are publications by Snap Research that focus on research that has been done by the Snap Research Team to further innovation and new technological creation.
Significant Otter: Understanding the Role of Biosignals in Communication
Significant Otter is a research project that was carried out by Snap Research, in 2021, that focuses on Human-Computer Interaction, as well as the interactions between romantic couples. In the research, Snap’s main goal was to figure out how biosignals, which is any signal in living beings that can be continuously measured and monitored, interacts and or effects communication.
Research began by running two pilot studies to test the Significant Otter app, which included seven couples. They used the app freely for a week and reported back, so Snap could improve usability before running pilot two. Pilot two lasted longer at three weeks and included three couples. The results of pilot two confirmed that “people viewed sensing ON as a feature update that included biosignals, and provided initial insights that informed the development of the study materials”. The pilot also provided ways to address possible COVID-19 interferences.
The couples would be able to send two types of otter animations to each other. The type of animations were states and reacts, where state animations correspond to different emotions and are used to initiate conversation. There were four types of state animations: emotions, activities, greetings, and affection.
After receiving a state animation from their significant other, the partners could send react animations. The included reacting animations were 14 that could cover a variety of responses, some being acknowledgment, caring, and follow-up.
The actual study lasted a month, where testing of the app was achieved by deploying the sensing OFF and ON versions of the app. 20 couples were included in the study, some living together and some living apart. All the couples were Apple Watch users that freely used the Significant Otter app as much as they wanted to.
The results of the research showed that couples used the sensing ON version less, and share a sensed state using biosignals, over the OFF version, which required couples to choose and send a state manually without the use of biosignals. Although the couples did prefer the sensing ON. At the same time, participants reported challenges in using the app to communicate, which revealed more opportunities and challenges for integrating biosignals into communication.
AdverTiming Matters: Examining User Ad Consumption for Effective Ad Allocations on Social Media
Advertisements are promotions of a product, service, or an event, which are perfect for businesses or anyone who wants to promote anything, but as you may have noticed yourself, Ads can be annoying. You may be watching TV and there are commercials, playing a game on your phone with an ad between each level, or scrolling on the internet where there are ads, even streaming services depending on your subscription level may have ads. But since these ads create revenue, you can play your game for free, and watch shows on your streaming service for a less price, as well as other benefits. Although, is the tradeoff worth it? What happens when the trade-off isn’t worth it? The user experience is hurt and users are lost. AdverTiming Matters is a research project carried out by Snap Research that focuses on the issue of advertisement.
Research was conducted using the Snapchat platform and focused on ad reception and how they are consumed on Snapchat Discover Feed with varying hours of the days and included 100K users. Two measurements were used in the outcome, including ad effectiveness, which is how interested people feel in watching an ad, and what actions are taken after, and Ad Click Through Rate, which is the proportion of ads that were clicked on.
Research focused on different conditions that may affect ad effectiveness. One of the focuses was on momentary behaviors, which is just people’s momentary psychological and behavioral state. First is duration which focuses on the length of time a user spends on a session, where it was found that it is recommended to increase ads in a longer session while decreasing ads in shorter sessions. Second is activity, which is the frequency of touch actions in a session, where it is recommended to increase ads during low-activity sessions and decrease ads during high-activity sessions. Last is interactivity, which is a user’s degree of interactiveness in terms of posting, responding, and consuming context. IT is recommended that when it comes to interactivity, ads should be increased at low interactivity sessions during less-preferred times and decreased during high interactivity sessions of more-preferred times.
From the research, snap realized that they had to make sure that their advertisements not only aimed to generate and increase platform revenue but also minimize user dissatisfaction that is caused by ads, while also making sure to help keep users better engaged.
Snap Research focuses on research and innovation as well as solving problems. Significant Otter: Understanding the Role of Biosignals in Communication and AdverTiming Matters: Examining User Ad Consumption for Effective Ad Allocations on Social Media are both publications on research by Snap that focus on solving a problem or discovering new technologies that also reveal other innovations that were not at first thought of. Significant Otter focused on animations and biosignals, which lead to a further solution of how biosignals can be used, such as enhanced emojis, and how it can better communication and understanding between persons. AdverTiming Matters found solutions to better show ads to users while decreasing satisfaction, while also discovering that showing Ads based on the individual and their rate of activeness on the platform increases ad effectiveness, although complicated.
