Three reasons snapchat filters might be so popular.

1. They look really cool. They are super high polished, impressively rendered MR. (Looking like a real live Panda is awesome.)

2. The sense of wonder/discovery is real. It’s always exciting to open the app and see what kind of amazing new filters might be waiting for you.

This is achieved not just through new content, but artificial constraint on supply for existing content, your favourite filter might become unavailable for months and then suddenly be waiting for you in app.

Even seeing what the animation will be for the dynamic filters provides a low voltage dose of curiosity/anticipation.

3. They grease a core behaviour looking to be expressed. Ask anybody who’s good with people, about people, and they’ll tell you people like talking about themselves. We like looking at ourselves to. Think about the amount of time you spend catching a glimpse of yourself in a passing window/mirror.

Thing about the total volume of photos taken on earth (especially now versus pre-smartphone.) Think about how many of those are selfies. Think about how many selfies are taken for each one posted. No one posts, the first picture.

The point is we as a species are raging ego beasts who love pictures of ourselves, love talking about ourselves and love it even more when other people are looking at pictures of us or talking about us.

Snapchat filters lubricate the process of taking and posting selfies. They give us an excuse to post even more pictures of yourself. They take a hugely frequent behaviour (taking selfies) and make it even more frequent.