Dive Brief:

• Just in time for Election Day, Twitter is introducing selife "masks" to Periscope that streamers can use to superimpose an image of Clinton or Trump over their face, according to a company blog post.
• The masks will be available through Friday, and Periscope hopes they'll serve as an "entertaining way to have conversations and raise awareness around the election and the importance of voting."
• The augmented filters are clearly reminiscent of the ones on Snapchat. They will only be available to iOS users.  

Dive Insight:

Now that Snapchat's value is becoming clearer to marketers and investors — the company could be potentially worth north of $25 billion in an expected initial public offering — more competitors in the video space are looking to up their augmented offerings. Just last week, Facebook Live introduced Snap-esque "masks" for Halloween, and now Twitter's Periscope is capitalizing on the real timeliness of the election through its own Snap facsimilie.  

The trend toward copying Snapchat's features raises questions of just how unique Snapchat really is. Video augmentations and selife filters are its bread and butter, but the ease in which Facebook and now Twitter have integrated the tech shows that Snapchat might have to expand its offerings if it wants to remain truly distinctive in the social space. 

Twitter, for its part, just emerged from a surprisingly strong Q3 that nevertheless saw the trimming of its looping video app Vine and also significant layoffs, with 9% of the company cut. Twitter’s strongest move forward remains in its renewed focus on live video, and Periscope could be a strong facilitator of that, both through fun efforts like the new election filters and also its recently announced studio-quality broadcast options.