Snapchat launches AR Lenses powered by generative AI, starting with a new ‘Cosmic Lens’

Snapchat is introducing AR Lenses powered by generative AI, the company announced at its Snap Partner Summit today. To start, the platform is rolling out a new “Cosmic Lens” that turns you and your surroundings into an immersive, animated sci-fi scene.

“Today, we’re introducing a new generation of Lenses powered by generative AI,” Snap CTO Bobby Murphy said during the event. “AI and AR are deeply interconnected, powering a new spectrum of creative possibilities. Our vision is to weave computing seamlessly into the world — and support our vibrant community of AR creators, developers and partners.”

It’s not surprising that Snapchat is veering into the world of generative AI to enhance its AR Lenses, especially since it already got in on 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 stunned viewers with its hyper-realistic AI-powered “Bold Glamour” filter.

In addition to launching generative AI Lenses, Snapchat announced that it’s making it easier for users to find relevant Lenses. The app will start recommending Lenses that fit with the context of a photo or video a user has captured. Snapchat explained that this will be done through a combination of visual understanding of what’s in the camera’s view and APIs that understand specific factors, such as the local weather, forecast and time of day.

The company has also rolled out improvements to its Lens Carousel ranking algorithms to recommend Lenses based on users’ unique preferences and updated the AR Bar, which means users will find hundreds of suggested Lenses organized by category, right on the Camera screen.

Snapchat is also testing ways to make it faster to add AR to Memories. Users start to see their recent shots alongside Lenses in the Snapchat Camera, so that 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 creators and developers around the world have built over 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, enhancing Bitmoji, introducing new ways to virtually interact with friends and more.