Facebook has acquired Masquerade Technologies, Inc., the maker of an app by the name of MSQRD that allows users to face swap, or add filters to their selfies.

The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Founded in 2010, the company’s main app has become a literal overnight success on Apple’s App Store with an average rating of 5 stars and has stayed near the top of the App Store’s charts.

The app itself allows users to record video selfie animations, change the way they look and send it to friends via their favorite messengers and social networks.

“Video communication is exploding,” Masquerade Co-founder Eugene Nevgen said in a blog post. “At Masquerade, we’ve worked hard to make video more fun and engaging by creating filters that enhance and alter your appearance. Now, we’re excited to join forces with Facebook and bring the technology to even more people. Within Facebook, we’re going to be able to reach people at a scale like never before. For starters, we’ll be able to bring our technology to Facebook’s audience of nearly 1.6 billion people. This is a scale of audience we never imagined was possible.”

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg welcomed the company to Facebook in a most appropriate way by recording a video of himself using the service, complete with an Iron Man filter over his face.

Snapchat competitor

When it comes to selfies with filters on them MSQRD has only one major competitor, and that’s the eternally money hungry messaging app maker Snapchat, Inc.

One of the reasons Snapchat has resonated so well with its millennial audience has been its implementation of what they call Lenses, filters that allow users to add special effects (with an emphasis on the special) to the pictures they share.

MSQRD is by all accounts not only an equal to what Snapchat provides but even better in what it does.

Although no time frame has been given the technology behind MSQRD will likely appear in Facebook Messenger at some stage later this year, although for now Facebook is promising to maintain the app as a standalone service.

If you’re interested in trying out an app that clearly tickled the fancy of Mark Zuckerberg it can be downloaded from the Apple App store here, and from the Google Play here.

Image credit: MSQRD.