This week, the highly anticipated sixth edition of the Snap Partner Summit (SPS) took place, revealing a series of updates to the platform, as well as new creative opportunities for Snapchatters, creators and businesses alike. The cutting edge features include a new profile design created to elevate the user experience; more tools to make content and build communities; and an enhanced AR Lens Studio to amplify creativity. With users in the GCC opening the platform on average 45 times per day, these enhancements are set to elevate the region’s digital communication platform of choice.
Evan Spiegel, Snap’s CEO, took to the SPS stage to announce the game-changing updates, while other executives and external speakers shared demos and keynotes, explaining the transformative impact to both personal and business users. One of the most significant updates unveiled was the Snapchat platform makeover offering a simplified Snapchat. Currently being tested with groups around the world, the enhanced design organizes the app to be centered around what we use our phones for most: communication, taking pictures, and finding entertainment.
As pioneers in Augmented Reality (AR) technology, Snap’s rebuild of the Lens Studio will allow AR developers to build more robust, advanced AR experiences together. Snap is also making AR creation more approachable with Easy Lens, powered by AI the feature allows users to build Lenses in a matter of minutes, just by typing in what they want to create. With 80% of consumers desiring to use AR everyday in the MENA region, these updates will be pivotal for local brands looking to generate real relationships with their audiences. What’s more, a roll out of new GenAI Suite features in the Lens Studio will include tools such as Animation Blending, Body Morph, and Icon Generation, making it faster and easier to bring creativity to life.
Aligned with Snap’s regional direction to continue supporting the growth of creators, SPS also saw imperative updates to the platforms offering in this space. The new Profile Design allows both established and aspiring creators 16 and older to easily toggle between their personal and public accounts. Snapchatters can also pin their favourite Snaps to the top of their public profiles, and use replies to turn messages into a photo and video response, creating deeper engagement with fans.
Hussein Freijeh, Vice President of Snap Inc. in MENA commented, “In a time of transformation, not only in the region but across the world, relationships with those who matter most to us remain more important than ever. For a decade, Snapchat has been a digital extension of the GCC’s social fabric, making it the platform of choice for staying connected with family and friends. The pioneering updates announced at SPS ensure these relationships remain a fundamental part of the platform, from expressing creativity with friends through new AR lenses, to developing game-changing tools for businesses to build real connections with their audiences. We are confident that the new features announced will further strengthen our community and drive more engagement”.
He added “One of our core focuses for the region is supporting our thriving creator community, and the amplified Snap Star Collab studio announced at SPS will strengthen this goal. Excitingly, creators will now be able to share engagement and demographic data directly with brands, helping to unlock new opportunities for real and impactful partnerships on the platform.”
SPS also saw the introduction of the fifth generation of Spectacles, the see-through, standalone AR glasses that allow users to experience immersive Lenses together, use MyAI, and extend Snapchat experience into three dimensions.
To learn more, please visit newsroom.snap.com
The full list of updates from the Snap Partner Summit include:
Snapchat App News
- ● A simplified Snapchat: is testing with a select group of Snapchatters around the world. This evolved version of Snapchat aims to simplify the Snapchatter experience by organizing the app around what we use our phones for most: communication, taking pictures, and finding entertainment.
- ● New AI Features:
- ○ New AI Lens: We dropped a new AI Grandparents Lens that lets Snapchatters see their “elderly selves”.
- ○ AI in Snapchat Memories: Snapchat+ subscribers will see creative AI captions and Lenses applied to their Memories, as well as totally new AI Snaps to share with friends.
- ○ Advanced Snapping with My AI: My AI is now even better at problem solving with Snaps, and can interpret complex parking signs, translate menus in a foreign language, identify unique plants, and more.
- ● New Bitmoji Fashion: We’ll announce new accessories for Bitmoji including Snap-yellow Crocs dropping on Tuesday, and upcoming handbag partnerships with Prada and Miu Miu.
AR
- ● We rebuilt Lens Studio from the ground up so that AR developers and teams can build more robust, advanced AR experiences together. AR experiences built in Lens Studio can be published to Snapchat, partners’ apps and websites, and to our AR glasses Spectacles.
- ● We’re making AR creation more approachable with our new Easy Lens. This new tool makes it possible to build Lenses in a matter of minutes, just by typing what you want to create. Through a chat interface, Easy Lens uses large language models to connect with Lens Studio components, and builds Lenses in front of your eyes.
- ● We’re rolling out a slate of new GenAI Suite features in Lens Studio. These make it faster and easier to bring your creativity to life. AR creators will find new tools including Animation Blending, Body Morph, and Icon Generation, and soon, we’ll make it possible to generate animations through text descriptions, and we’ll support Video to 3D Gaussian Splats.
Creators
- ● New Profile Design to Engage with Friends and Fans: A new simplified profile design allows Snapchatters 16 and older to easily toggle between their personal and public accounts. If they want to connect with their real friends – personal. And if they choose to reach a wider audience – public.
- ● More Tools to Make Content & Build Community: Pin your favorite Snaps to the top of your Public Profile, use Templates to make it even easier to create and share Snaps, and use Replies to turn messages into a photo and video response to create deeper engagement with fans.
- ● Snap Star Collab Studio Update to Accelerate Creator x Brand Partnerships: Through our preferred partners and new self-serve tools, creators can now choose to show off their engagement and demographic data to brands when they’re part of the Snap Star Collab Studio, a program that helps accelerate creator and brand partnerships. Soon, they’ll be able to share this information directly with any advertiser on Snapchat.
New Spectacles & Introducing SnapOS
*Not currently available in the Middle East region
- ● We’re introducing the fifth generation of Spectacles, our see-through, standalone AR glasses that enable you to use Lenses and experience the world together with friends in totally new ways.
- ● Spectacles are powered by SnapOS, our brand new and groundbreaking operating system designed to enhance how people naturally interact with the world. You can easily navigate Snap OS with your hands and voice – and the main menu is always in the palm of your hands.
- ● SnapOS leverages our proprietary technology, including Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) micro-projectors and waveguides, creating vivid, sharp images both indoors and outdoors – even in direct sunlight.
- ● Spectacles are designed with our dual system-on-a-chip architecture, with two Snapdragon processors from Qualcomm, this infrastructure splits the compute workload across the two processors which enables more immersive experiences while reducing power consumption and improving heat dissipation. Spectacles deliver up to 45 minutes of continuous standalone runtime.
- ● We are partnering with OpenAI to give developers access to powerful multimodal large language models, so they can easily build Lenses that recognize objects around you and provide more context.
- ● We want to be the most developer-friendly platform in the world, and empower developers to invest in building amazing Lenses.
- ● AR developers and teams are already leveraging Lens Studio and SnapOS to create new Lenses for Spectacles, including the LEGO Group, ILM Immersive, Niantic and Wabisabi Games.
Partners
- ● Snapchat Cam Expanding to More Venues: Snapchat has partnered to bring Snapchat Cam to more than 50 venues, teams, artists, and broadcast partners, like the Indiana Fever at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. We can’t wait to make big events more memorable for the millions of attendees who visit these sites every year.
- ● Rock Out with the Lip Syncing Lens: We launched a new lip syncing Lens with Eminem in celebration of his new song “Fuel”. Soon this visual Lens experience will support thousands of tracks from Snapchat’s Sounds library so Snapchatters can take Snaps rocking out in real time or apply the Lens to bring their Memories to life.
- ● Try a New Look with NYX Beauty Bestie: We’re introducing an advanced version of this Lens that uses generative AI to recommend endless looks tailored to Snapchatters’ unique features, making mastering a handful of looks fun, mess-free, and easy to share with friends in a Snap.
About Snap Inc.
Snap is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. The Company’s three core products are Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world; Lens Studio, an augmented reality platform that powers AR across Snapchat and other services; and its AR glasses, Spectacles.
