Snap Democratizes AR Creation with AI-Powered Lens Studio for iOS and Web

Snap launches Lens Studio iOS and web apps for creating AR Lenses with AI and simple tools | TechCrunch

Snap has launched a standalone Lens Studio iOS app and web tool, the company announced on Wednesday. The new tools are designed to make it easier for anyone to create AR Lenses through text prompts and simple editing tools. With the Lens Studio app, users will be able to do things like generate their own AI effects, add their Bitmoji, and browse trending templates to create customized Lenses. Up until now, Lens Studio has only been accessible via a desktop application for professional developers. While the desktop application will remain the primary tool for professionals, Snap says that the new iOS app and web tool are designed to allow people at all skill levels to create Lenses. "These are experimental new tools that make it easier than ever to create, publish, and play with Snapchat Lenses made by you," Snap wrote in a blog post. "Now, you can generate your own AI effects, add your dancing Bitmoji to the fun, and express yourself with Lenses that reflect your mood or an inside joke-whether you're on the go or near your computer." While Snap currently has an ecosystem of over 400,000 professional AR developers, the company is looking to attract more people who are interested in creating Lenses with the launch of these simpler tools. Snap is considered a leader in AR thanks to its early adoption of the technology through its AR filters and Lenses, and it's clear the company is committed to investing in the space, even as others may be retracting from it. Last year, Meta angered creators after it decided to shut down its Spark AR platform, which allowed third parties to build augmented reality (AR) effects. By opening up access to AR creation, Snap is doubling down on its vision for the technology. As Snap is bringing AR creation into the hands of more people, the company is also rolling out advanced tools for professionals. Yesterday, Snap released new Lens Studio tools that AR creators and developers can use to build Bitmoji games. The tools include a turn-based system to enable back-and-forth gameplay, a new customizable Character Controller that supports different gameplay styles, and more.

Snapchat now has a standalone app for making gen AI augmented reality effects

Snapchat has been experimenting with generative AI-powered augmented reality lenses in its app for the last couple years. Now, the company is allowing users to make their own with a new standalone app for making AR effects. Snap is introducing a new version of its Lens Studio software that allows anyone to create AR lenses through text prompts and other simple editing tools, and publish them directly to Snapchat. Up to now, Lens Studio has only been available as a desktop app meant for developers and AR professionals. And while the new iOS app and web version aren't nearly as powerful, it offers a wide range of face-altering and body-morphing effects thanks to generative AI. "These are experimental new tools that make it easier than ever to create, publish, and play with Snapchat Lenses made by you," the company explains in a blog post. "Now, you can generate your own AI effects, add your dancing Bitmoji to the fun, and express yourself with Lenses that reflect your mood or an inside joke-whether you're on the go or near your computer. " Snap gave me an early look at the Lens Studio iOS app, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much flexibility it offered. There are AI-powered tools for transforming your face, body and background via detailed text prompts (the app also offers suggestions of the kinds of prompts that work well, like "detailed zombie head with big eyes and nose, lots of details.") There's a bit of a learning curve to figuring out what works well for each type of effect, and some of the generative AI prompts can take up to 20 minutes to render. But the app also offers dozens of templates that you can use as a starting point and remix with your own ideas. You can also make simpler face-altering filters that don't rely as heavily AI but take advantage of popular Snapchat effects like face cutouts or Bitmoji animations. (A few examples of my creations are below, both used AI to create a background I overlaid other effects onto.) Snap already has hundreds of thousands of lens creators, some of whom have been making effects for the app for years. But I can easily see this new, simpler version of Lens Studio opening the door for many more. There could also be some upside for creators hoping to take advantage of Snapchat's monetization programs: the company confirmed that users who publish lenses from the new app will be eligible to participate in its Lens Creator Rewards program, which pays creators who make popular AR effects. A more accessible version of Lens Studio could also help Snap compete with Meta for AR talent. (Meta shut down Spark AR, its platform that allowed creators to make AR for Instagram last year.) In addition to Snapchat's in-app effects, the company is now on its second generation of standalone AR glasses. More recently, Snap has focused on big-name developers to make glasses-ready effects, but the company has previously leaned on Lens Creators to come up with interesting use cases for AR glasses. Those types of integrations will likely require much more than what's currently available in the new pared-down version of Lens Studio, but making AR creation more accessible (with the help of AI) raises some interesting possibilities for what might one day be possible for the company.