Snapchat is introducing AR lenses powered by generative AI, the company announced today at the Snap Partner Summit. For starters, the platform is rolling out a new “Cosmic Lens” that turns you and your surroundings into an immersive, animated sci-fi scene.
“Today we are introducing a new generation of lenses powered by generative AI,” said Snap CTO Bobby Murphy at the event. “AI and AR are closely linked, opening up a new spectrum of creative possibilities. Our vision is to seamlessly integrate computing into the world – supporting our vibrant community of AR makers, developers and partners.”
Image Credits: snapchat
It’s not surprising that Snapchat is entering the world of generative AI to improve its AR lenses, especially since it already got into the AI frenzy with its My AI chatbot. It’s worth noting that Snapchat isn’t the only popular social media platform to use AI to enhance its AR offerings, as TikTok recently wowed viewers with its hyper-realistic AI-powered “Bold Glamour” filter.
In addition to launching Generative AI Lenses, Snapchat has announced that it’s making it easier for users to find relevant Lenses. The app starts recommending Lenses that fit the context of a photo or video a user has taken. Snapchat explained that this will be done through a combination of visual understanding of what the camera sees and APIs that understand specific factors such as the local weather, forecast and time of day.
Image Credits: snapchat
The company has also made improvements to the lens carousel’s ranking algorithms to recommend lenses based on users’ unique preferences and updated the AR bar, which means users can find hundreds of suggested lenses by category right on the camera screen.
Snapchat is also testing ways to make adding AR to Memories faster. Users are starting to see their recent photos next to Lenses in the Snapchat camera so they can easily access them when they’re about to post a throwback snap.
As part of the announcements, Snapchat revealed that more than 300,000 AR makers and developers around the world have built more than 3 million lenses. In addition, the company shared that some of its most popular lenses have been viewed more than 10 billion times.
At today’s event, Snap made a series of announcements and unveiled a slew of new features coming to the app. The company is rolling out new Stories features, adding updates to the Snap Map, improving Bitmoji, introducing new ways to interact with friends virtually, and more.
