New announcements include an updated Lens Studio; new Local Lenses as well as new technical partnerships.
Snap Inc. has announced new camera and augmented reality experiences for developers, creators, and Snapchatters.
On average, more than 170m Snapchatters engage with AR daily for nearly 30 times per day. Lenses, Snap’s AR product, is made by Snap’s own design team and its global creator community.
Lens Studio is a free desktop application designed for developers and artists to build and distribute AR Lenses on Snapchat.
Snap is updating Lens Studio with new advanced features to push the boundaries of AR creation. Lens Studio now features SnapML, which lets any developer bring their own machine learning models to power Lenses. Now, anyone can create their own Lenses with neural networks that they’ve trained, expanding the possibilities for Lenses that can transform the world. Snap has partnered with Wannaby, Prisma, CV2020, and several Official Lens Creators on their first SnapML creations.
In addition, Lens Studio now offers Face Landmarks and Face Expressions for improved facial tracking, new Hand Gesture templates, and an updated user interface to simplify navigation within the tool. Lens Studio is also releasing a foot tracking template powered by an ML model from Wannaby that lets developers easily create Lenses that interact with feet.
Snap is also previewing Local Lenses, which enable a persistent, shared AR world built right on top of your neighbourhood. Soon, Snapchatters and their friends can step into this virtual space together to decorate nearby buildings with colourful paint and experience a new dimension of AR.
When Snapchatters “press and hold” on the camera screen, relevant, helpful Lenses are unlocked based on what they see in front of them.
Alongside this, Snap has announced new Scan partners. With PlantSnap, Snapchatters can identify 90% of all known plants and trees. In partnership with Dog Scanner, one can point the Snapchat camera to recognise almost 400 breeds. An integration with Yuka later this year powers Nutrition Scanner, which provides a rating on the quality of ingredients in many packaged foods by scanning an item’s label. Scan can also enable compelling experiences for brands. Soon, Scan the iconic Louis Vuitton monogram to be transported into the inspiration behind their latest collection.
Additionally, Snap is introducing Voice Scan, which offers Snapchatters Lens results based on voice commands. Powered by a partnership with SoundHound, press and hold on the camera screen to tell Snapchat what kind of Lens to display.
