Prisma is bringing its filters to Facebook Live videos

Just a day after Facebook demonstrated an app that would deploy filters in live video, Prisma announced that its solution will be available in the “next couple of days.” In a broadcast, company chief executive and cofounder Alexey Moiseenkov said that Prisma Live brings the styles users apply to photos to video livestreams, starting with Facebook Live.

To make a creative video, users need only start a livestream using Prisma Live. The app leverages the Facebook Live API, a feed that was released in April and enables third-party developers to incorporate this video technology directly into their own apps. Moiseenkov revealed that there are at least 10 styles that can be used, but it’s likely that number could be closer to 17 at launch.

The timing of Prisma’s release couldn’t be better, especially coming a day after Facebook’s chief product officer Chris Cox demonstrated on stage at the WSJD Live conference a prototype app that his company is working on. And hours ago, Google revealed research pertaining to how it, too, could enable applications to apply artistic styles over video and then swap to others on demand.

Moiseenkov commented on the timing, saying, “it’s evident that style transfer and on-device deploying stuff matters a lot for every big company in the world.” He admitted that he didn’t expect “such big growth in a short period of time” for Prisma but said he thinks it’s cool that the app allows people around the world to be more expressive. He appreciates that everyone is now working in the same arena as Prisma and said his team has “huge experience building such kinds of apps.” He added that he believes “we can do the best.”

While it appears that Prisma has beaten Facebook and Google to the punch, it’s unclear how its feature will really perform when in the wild. Cox had remarked that real-time implementation of this capability has been a difficult challenge for Facebook, saying “It’s taking something that’s a known technology, but it was getting it to be fast on a phone and to be able to be done at a low-enough latency without dropping frames, stuttering, or…blurring.”

This isn’t the first time Prisma has dabbled in the video space. Earlier this month, it announced video editing support, allowing people to create 15-second clips. While in beta, filters are limited to nine styles, including Candy, Cold Fish, Paper Art, and Tokyo, but there are plans to add more.

Moiseenkov also teased the possibility of expanding Prisma to China and of future support for GIFs and time lapse.