Snapchat only has one product which is its ephemeral messaging app. The app itself has grown a lot over the last couple of years and is now more useful than ever before. Could Snapchat have aspirations of becoming a hardware company as well? This has been speculated in the past but with Snapchat joining the Bluetooth Special Interest Group it’s being viewed as a serious possibility now.
The Financial Times reports that Snapchat has joined the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. It’s the association that maintains the Bluetooth wireless standard and companies that want to create Bluetooth-enabled devices are required to attain membership of Bluetooth SIG prior to launching their devices.
Snapchat’s status in the SIG is that of an “adopter” which is a free tier that gives member companies a license to build products that are Bluetooth-enabled. Companies with adopter status can also work with other SIG members. The FT points out in its reports that companies only really join the Bluetooth SIG when they interested in launching a new hardware product.
It’s not immediately clear what sort of a device Snapchat could be building. There haven’t been many rumors about a smartphone but there are whispers of Snapchat being interested in the augmented reality space. A previous report even claimed that Snapchat is developing its own Google Glass-like smart glasses.
The company hasn’t confirmed anything about its hardware aspirations so far.
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