SPS 2023: Making Snapchat Your Most Personal Camera

At Snap, we’ve long believed that augmented reality enhances our community’s relationships with their friends, family, and the world. 

Our community interacts with AR at an incredible scale — approximately two out of every three Snapchatters engage with AR on our service daily ¹ and play with Lenses over 6 billion times per day on average. ² 

With more people using AR every day, our team has been pushing the boundaries of how AR experiences are created. Through advancements in machine learning, AR can be created incredibly fast, look more realistic than ever before, and unleash exciting creative possibilities for our community. 

Generative AI Lenses

We’re unveiling a new generation of Lenses powered by Generative AI, now available globally. Snapchatters can now transform themselves and the world around them into an animated sci-fi scene through the Cosmic Lens. 

A Camera Built for You

Since there are millions of Lenses available on Snapchat, we’re making it easier for our community to find the most helpful, relevant Lenses at the right time — making Snapchat feel like the most personal camera in the world. 

First, we’re beginning to recommend Lenses that fit with the context of a photo or video a Snapchatter has captured. Through a combination of visual understanding of what’s in the camera’s view and APIs that understand factors including the local weather forecast and time of day, Lenses are dynamically surfaced to match the moment. Over the next few months, Snapchatters will find more Lens recommendations when people or pets are captured in the frame. 

Next, we’re testing ways to make it faster to add AR to Memories. Snapchatters will see their recent shots alongside Lenses in the Snapchat Camera, so they’re right on hand when inspiration strikes for a throwback Snap. 

Finally, we’ve improved our Lens Carousel ranking algorithms to recommend Lenses based on Snapchatters’ unique preferences and updated the AR Bar. Now, Snapchatters will find hundreds of suggested Lenses organized by category, right on the Camera screen. 

These updates offer our AR creator community more surfaces for their Lenses to be recommended to Snapchatters. Throughout the year, we’ll roll out a suite of new tools in Lens Studio that let AR creators select the scenarios where Lenses will be the most relevant and helpful for Snapchatters. 

We’re driven to bring our community the most creative and helpful AR experiences alongside our vibrant community of AR creators, developers, and partners.