Snapchat is making the new “Imagine Lens,” the company's first open-source, instant AI image lens, available for free to all users. Lens originally launched in September, but only for paid subscribers. With Lens, users can edit their own Snaps using custom tooltips or generate their own.
For example, after taking a selfie, you can ask the app to “Turn me into an alien” or ask for a photo of a “grumpy cat.” The company suggests you can use the Lens to, among other things, try out Halloween costume ideas or reimagine a friend with a new look.
Results can be shared with friends, posted to Snapchat Stories, or shared outside the app.
The increased availability of AI Lens follows the launch of AI video generating apps from Meta (Meta AI) and OpenAI (Sora), which compete for young people's attention with even more advanced AI tools and features than photo modifications.
For example, Sora allows users to generate videos of themselves after sharing a one-time video and audio recording with the app to capture their appearance. Friends can share these AI characters, called “cameos,” with each other so they can appear in videos together.
This puts pressure on other social media apps like Snapchat to keep up, so enabling the use of AI Image Lens seems like a worthwhile investment for the app developer.
Until now, Snapchat's AI Lens was only available to Lens+ and Snapchat Platinum subscribers, the company says. With the expanded rollout, Snap is making a limited number of image generations available to all free users. At launch, the new Lens will be available for free to users in the US, with plans for other markets starting with Canada, the UK and Australia in the works.
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The lens is located at the front of the lens carousel in the app. You can also search for it by name. To create, tap your caption to edit the prompt, or use one of the preloaded suggestions if you need inspiration.
The company notes that Snapchat users access Lens more than 8 billion times a day.
