The first Geofilter overlay as seen on a 'Snap' of Darlington's swans, created by Herren Burgess ('17)
Darlington students, faculty, parents, alumni, and visitors will now be able to share what they see and experience on campus with three new student-designed Geofilters,available only through smartphone app Snapchat.
Geofilters add a transparent overlay of graphics and text (unique to a designated geographic location) to the user's multimedia content, or snap.
An idea spearheaded by Student Council representatives Bernadette Ebri ('17) and Sam Tackeberry ('18) emerged as an opportunity to highlight student creativity, while showing off the campus, special moments, events, and the personalities at Darlington through the popular social platform.
"When talking to people back home, Snapchat is a great way for them to see what life is like at Darlington," said Tackeberry, a boarding student from North Carolina. "We thought this would be a great idea to have in place so that everyone could share what they're up to on campus in a fun way."
A contest was held by Student Council under the guidance of Darlington's Communication Office to solicit Geofilter designs for the app, awarding three winning entries with gift cards:
— a geometric Tiger face, Herren Burgess ('17)
— the word ROAR in purple, Tyler Dai ('16)
— Wilcox Hall and the Sennett Bell Tower, Nora Winkler ('17)
"Each submission we received was unique in its own way, representing something different about Darlington," added Tackeberry.
The first Geofilter to go live was the geometric Tiger face, which premiered just in time for Alumni Weekend at the end of October.
The Snapchat app is free to download and is used for capturing and sharing through photo and video messaging. Users can create doodles and captions for each piece of content, while also enhancing the footage through stock filters. Snaps can be viewed for up to 10 seconds before they expire.
The application accesses Geofilters based on the user's geographic location only when they choose for it to do so. To utilize Geofilters on a personal device, one's location must be turned on through the phone's settings and all filters must be enabled in the app. Filters appear when the user swipes left or right after capturing media.
The first Geofilter overlay as seen on a 'Snap' of Darlington's swans, created by Herren Burgess ('17)
