Five years after Snap -- Snapchat's parent company -- released Spectacles, they're now venturing into hardware again in the form of a drone called Pixy.
Pixy is a drone or rather a tiny yellow quadcopter. The dimensions are really tiny, only slightly bigger than the palm of the hand. Once flown, the Pixy will follow the owner, and of course record videos that are sent to Snapchat.
This is Snap's experiment in making drones that are more user-friendly, due to their relative ease of use and dimensions that make them portable.
Of course, the Pixy is not like most other drones. There is no controller to control the flight. He can only take off and land from the palm of the hand. Then he also has six flight patterns that are already stored in it, which are accessed by turning a button on the top of this drone.
Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, admitted that the release of this drone was done because he believed that Snap was a camera company. This tagline has been around since 2016, ever since they changed their name from Snapchat and released Spectacles.
"Our mission is to encourage users to express themselves, enjoy life, learn about the world, and have fun together. And this product (Pixy) is a product that can be used to do all of those things," explained Spiegel.
Pixy itself weighs only 101 grams with an 860 mAh battery installed in it. When fully charged, this USD 230 drone can fly five to eight times, each lasting 10-20 seconds.
The extra battery retails for USD 20, and the portable charger costs USD 50. Pixy has a camera with a 12MP sensor that can record up to 100 videos or 1000 photos stored in the built-in 16GB storage.
The captured photo or video is wirelessly synced to the Memories section of Snapchat, where it is edited, and then shared on Snapchat or other platforms. Snap of course also provides a special AR for Pixy.
The Pixy camera is stored on the bottom of the drone, which allows it to take off and land from the palm of your hand.
Snap admits that they don't expect to get much profit from Pixy, because they claim that they only hope that many people will use it and have fun with Pixy.
"The goal is really just to get it into people's hands and make them play with it. And maybe we'll make a 2nd version if people like this product," explained Spiegel, as quoted by us from The Verge, Saturday ( 30/4/2022).