Frank Ocean new album: Snapchat launches ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ filters ahead of release

If you’re fed up of looking at an uneventful live stream, you can instead make Frank Ocean videos of yourself

Frank Ocean performs during the 2014 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on June 14, 2014 in Manchester, Tennessee (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Snapchat has launched special filters to console people waiting for Frank Ocean’s new album.

In selected countries, people are seeing special filters that people can use to communicate how bored they are with waiting for the new album, or to commiserate other people.

There are two filters, both of which reference the album’s release. The first is in the style of the Mac’s TextEdit window – which Frank Ocean has used to share statements in screen grabs from before – and another has a skeleton that represents fans and says “Waiting for Frank Ocean’s music like".

They can both be laid on top of any picture or video.

It isn’t clear whether any of the groups involved in the release of Ocean’s new album have paid for or sponsored the filters. But Snapchat does make money through such agreements, offering brands filters for a specific time or location.

If it has been paid for, then it would be just another part of an album release that has been surrounded in hype and mystery. But if Snapchat decided to make the filters itself then it would also be far from the first company looking to get in on the hype surrounding the album.

Snapchat’s filters are used by taking a picture and then swiping to the side afterwards.

It doesn’t appear that users have to be on the latest version of the app to get the special filters, since they can be pushed out from the servers rather than requiring a full update to the app itself.

Snapchat updated its app on 4 August this week, with a new feature called “Geostickers”. Those are special stickers that can be added on top of pictures and are only available in specific locations – for now, they will just appear in “some of the biggest cities in the world”, the company said.