New Delhi, September 2024.
Today we’re introducing the fifth generation of Spectacles, our new 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 Snap OS, our brand-new and groundbreaking operating system designed to enhance how people naturally interact with the world. Spectacles are available starting today as part of our Spectacles Developer Program.
Spectacles also work seamlessly with your mobile device. Through the new Spectacles app, you can use your phone as a custom game controller with Lenses, launch Spectator Mode so friends without Spectacles can follow along, mirror your phone screen, and more.
Cutting Edge Hardware for Spectacular Software
Spectacles are the result of a decade of research and development to introduce hardware that breaks the bounds of screens and brings people together in the real world. Spectacles pack incredible technology into AR glasses that weigh less than half the weight of a typical VR headset at only 226 grams. They are equipped with four cameras that power the Snap Spatial Engine and enable seamless hand tracking.
The Optical Engine has been designed and built from the ground up here at Snap and leverages our proprietary technology to enable a see-through AR display.
Spectacles’ impressively small, highly capable Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) micro-projectors create vivid, sharp images.
Our waveguides make it possible to see the images created by the LCoS projector, without the need for lengthy calibrations or custom fittings. Each advanced waveguide has billions of nanostructures that move light into your field of view to combine Snap OS with the real world.
The Optical Engine delivers a 46 degree diagonal field of view with a 37 pixel per degree resolution – similar to a 100 inch display just 10 feet away. Spectacles also tint automatically based on your environment’s lighting so visuals are vibrant, indoors or outdoors — even in direct sunlight.
Spectacles are powered by our dual system-on-a-chip architecture. With two Snapdragon processors from Qualcomm, this infrastructure splits the compute workload across the two processors. Our design enables more immersive experiences while reducing power consumption and works alongside titanium vapor chambers to improve heat dissipation. Spectacles deliver up to 45 minutes of continuous standalone runtime.
Snap OS: A Groundbreaking Operating System Built on Natural Interactions
Snap OS brings Spectacles to life through an intuitive interface and capabilities that reflect 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 hand.
The Snap Spatial Engine understands the world around you so that Lenses appear realistically in three dimensions. An astounding 13 millisecond motion-to-photon latency renders Lenses with incredible accuracy, integrating them naturally into your environment.
Lenses are built to be shared. Snap OS makes it easy for developers to build shared experiences for friends and family to use together.
Our Commitment to Supporting Developers + New and Improved Tools
We want to be the most developer-friendly platform in the world and empower developers to invest in building amazing Lenses.
To start, we’re introducing Spectacles with no developer tax and launching new ways to build and share Lenses.
We’ve optimized the end-to-end experience of developing and publishing Lenses. Instead of a complicated compiling process, the newly rebuilt Lens Studio 5.0 lets developers quickly push their project to Spectacles. With our new Spectacles Interaction Kit, you can build intuitive Lenses without the hassle of having to develop your own interaction system from scratch.
The modern foundation of Lens Studio 5.0 supports even more complex, robust Lenses with TypeScript, JavaScript, and improved version control tools for team-based development. Additionally, SnapML makes it easy for developers to use custom ML models directly in Lenses to identify, track, and augment objects.
We’re also excited to bring the power of cloud-hosted multimodal AI models to Spectacles through a new partnership with OpenAI. Soon, this will help developers bring new models to their Spectacles experiences to provide more context about what you see, say, or hear.
Join the Spectacles Developer Program in the U.S. for $99 dollars per month with a one year commitment. A subscription provides access to Spectacles and includes Snap support to help developers bring their projects to life.
Innovating Alongside Partners
AR developers and teams are already using Lens Studio and Snap OS to create new Lenses for Spectacles, including:
- Today, LEGO Group is launching BRICKTACULAR, an interactive AR game controlled entirely by your hands and voice. Whether you’re free building or tackling specific LEGO® sets, this experience unlocks endless possibilities to challenge yourself and see how fast you can build.
- ILM Immersive, Lucasfilm’s award-winning interactive studio, is developing new experiences that connect you and your friends with the Star Wars Galaxy.
- We’re excited to partner with Niantic to bring some of their most beloved experiences to Spectacles, including Peridot and Scaniverse.
- And thanks to Wabisabi Games, you can now play capture the flag in a totally new way.
We can’t wait to build the future together with you.
Join the Spectacles Developer Program today by visiting: www.spectacles.com/lens-studio
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SPS 2024 | A New and Simple Snapchat
By Team Snap
We’re now testing a new and simplified Snapchat that organizes the app around communicating with friends, using the camera, and watching Snaps from friends and the broader Snapchat community, including creators and publishers.
We’ve been working on unifying Stories and Spotlight for some time. Now, with this new and simplified design, Snapchatters will have a more personal and relevant viewing experience. This update also has the potential to help our creators and publisher partners find new audiences across new surfaces, and support our advertising business over the long-term.
Here is how Simple Snapchat works:
Open to Camera
As always, when Snapchatters open the app, they’ll immediately see their world through our camera, so they can easily take and share a Snap.
Conversations All in One Place
On the left, is Chat – home to all of Snapchatters’ conversations. Stories are now at the top of conversations, because sharing and replying to Stories is fundamental to the way we communicate.
Snapchatters can also hop into Snap Map from a button at the bottom of this tab, making it easy to translate conversations into real-world plans.
Personalized Content, For You
On the right, Snapchatters will find a new viewing experience that combines Stories and Spotlight videos. It’s powered by our first-ever unified recommendation system that makes for our most personalized experience yet.
Videos from friends are prioritized and recommendations are based on what Snapchatters love sharing with their community, what’s trending among their circle, and of course, what they love to watch.
We are excited to share this new experience and to continue our ongoing work to serve our community and partners.
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SPS 2024 | New AI and Chat Features to Spark Conversation
By Team Snap
AI has transformed the way we create pictures, learn about the world, and communicate with our friends. Today we’re introducing new AI-enabled features to spark conversations, make great Snaps, and discover new things.
New AI Lenses
The augmented reality technology we pioneered nine years ago transformed the way we express ourselves, visually. Last year, we made Lenses even better with AI, again revolutionizing the way Snapchatters express themselves. Starting today, Snapchatters can try our latest AI Lens that offers a glimpse of what they’ll look like in the future.
More AI Memories to Share with Friends
We’re also bringing AI to Memories! With a swipe up from the Camera, Snapchatters can view Memories in full screen, and see collages and video mashups of their favorites. And now, for Snapchat+ subscribers, AI will even act as a personal creative director adding captions and Lenses to Memories, giving them a whole new spin. Subscribers will also see totally new AI Snaps to share with friends. These AI Snaps rely on a new feature called My Selfie that lets Snapchatters create and manage their Snap AI identity. After uploading a few selfies, Snapchatters will be able to see themselves in AI-generated images, or even in Snaps with friends who have also opted-in.
Problem Solve with My AI
Now, My AI is even better at problem solving with Snaps. My AI can interpret Snaps of complex parking signs, translate menus in a foreign language, or help identify unique plants.
We’re also introducing additional communication features that help you stay connected and express your style.
Stay Connected from Afar
We show local time zones in chat to make it easier to connect with friends across the world. Improved HD video calls and Snap Mail, a feature that lets you leave a friend a Snap if they don’t answer, are there to help you stay in touch.
Showcase Your Style
New accessories for Bitmoji, your digital cartoon mini-me, will help you customize your fit. Look out for new Snap-yellow Crocs launching today, and get ready to sport a bag from our upcoming partnerships with Prada and Miu Miu.
Happy Snapping!
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SPS 2024 | New Ways for Creators to Build a Community & Find Success
By Team Snap
Relationships are at the core of every experience on Snapchat. So naturally, relationships are at the heart of our content experience – whether you’re the one making Snaps, or watching videos created by the community.
Over the last year, the number of creators posting publicly has more than tripled, and our community loves their content. Creators have garnered trillions of views on the Snaps in their Stories, and now, more than 500 million people watch Spotlight videos.1 We’re continuing to make it even easier for creators to facilitate relationships with friends and fans, create Snaps, and get rewarded while being themselves.
New Tools for Creators to Grow their Community
A new simplified profile design allows Snapchatters age 16 and older to easily toggle between their personal and public accounts.
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1 Snap Inc. internal data – as of June 30th, 2024
If they want to connect with their real friends – personal. And if they choose to reach a wider audience – public. For Snapchatters ages 16 and 17, the highest privacy safety settings are on by default.
Creators are now able to further customize their public profiles to give new viewers a sense of the Snaps they create by pinning their favorite Snaps to the top.
Templates also make it easier to create and share great Snaps using photos and videos from Memories and Camera Roll. Stay in the moment and post a recap of your once-in-a-lifetime vacation when you’re ready. Templates all come soundtracked with music from top and emerging artists.
Every day, there are nearly 15 billion interactions between creators and their fans on Snapchat.2 With the Replies and Quoting feature, Snapchatters can reply directly to a creator’s Snap. Creators can then turn that message into a photo and video response, allowing for deeper engagement with their audience.
More Ways for Creators to Find Success
Our Snap Star Collab Studio helps accelerate partnerships between creators and brands. Through our preferred partners and new self-serve tools, creators can now choose to show off their engagement and demographic data to brands. And soon, they’ll be able to share this information directly with any advertiser on Snapchat.
Creators can be rewarded while being their authentic selves across Stories and Spotlight. Also, our full suite of creative tools, like Lenses and Sounds, have helped support an ecosystem where there are lots of opportunities to build audiences through self-expression.
We can’t wait to see what you create!
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SPS 2024 | Snap AR: Enhancing In-App and Real World Experiences
By Team Snap
Our partners continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible with augmented reality, bringing to life the things you care about – from art and science, to sports and music, beauty and shopping, and everything in between. Today, over 300 million Snapchatters engage with augmented reality every day on average.3
Snapchat Cam Expanding to More Venues
During Super Bowl LVIII, the NFL took over the jumbotron at the stadium with Snapchat Cam, powered by Camera Kit technology, which lets partners bring AR into their own applications, websites, and in the real world.
We’re thrilled that we’ve 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.
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2 Snap Inc. internal data – Q2 2024 Earnings
3 Snap Inc. internal data – Q4 2023 Earnings
Lip Syncing Lens with Eminem
We’re also launching a 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 you can take Snaps rocking out in real time or apply the Lens to bring your Memories to life. Snaps with the Lip Syncing Lens have been shared more than 100 million times – it’s the perfect way to strike up a conversation.4
NYX Beauty Bestie
NYX Professional Makeup recently introduced NYX Beauty Bestie, which uses AR and AI to make mastering a handful of looks fun, mess-free, and easy to show your friends in a Snap. Today, we’re excited to introduce an advanced version of this Lens that uses generative AI to recommend endless looks tailored to your unique features.
Partners are using our technology to create experiences beyond our imagination. It’s incredible to see how they’re making Snapchatters everyday lives better, both in-app and out in the real world.
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SPS 2024 | Introducing New AI-Powered Tools in Lens Studio, Empowering Anyone to Create AR
By Team Snap
Through Lens Studio, our AR authoring tool, more than 375,000 creators, developers, and teams have published over 4 million Lenses on Snapchat, websites, mobile apps, and our AR glasses Spectacles.5
We’re constantly introducing new features and harnessing the power of generative AI to help any creative person – from hobbyists to professional development teams – boost their productivity and bring their imagination to life through AR.
Today, we’re announcing a new slate of AI-powered features that make Lens Studio an even more versatile and accessible platform.
Making AR Creation More Approachable
Easy Lens makes it possible to build Lenses in a matter of minutes, just by typing what you want to create. Quickly experiment with new ideas like Halloween costumes and Lenses to celebrate back to school. Through a chat interface, Easy Lens uses large language models to connect with Lens Studio components and build Lenses in front of your eyes.
This tool enables creators at nearly any ability level to make their own Lenses, while also empowering advanced creators to prototype and experiment quickly. We’re launching in beta with select creators starting today.
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4 Snap Inc. internal data – as of July 17, 2024
5 Snap Inc. internal data – as of June 30, 2024
New GenAI Suite Features
We’re also adding new tools to our GenAI Suite, supercharging AR creation. The GenAI Suite handles all the complexity of working with machine learning models – the data processing, training and optimization – so creators can focus on turning their imagination into reality.
Now, through the Animation Library, creators can choose from hundreds of high-quality movements. Animation Blending lets creators stitch multiple animation clips together to make movements look smooth. Body Morph generates full 3D characters, costumes, and outfits through a text or image prompt. And finally, Icon Generation provides creators with images to represent their Lens on Snapchat, making it easier for their Lenses to be discovered by our global community.
Soon, we’ll add even more GenAI-powered features to Lens Studio. We’ll make it possible to generate an animation through a simple description, bringing Bitmoji to life. We’ll also support Video to 3D Gaussian Splats, letting creators bring 3D renderings of real-world objects into Lenses. By taking a short video of an object and uploading it to Lens Studio, the object will be reconstructed into a photorealistic 3D asset. We’re excited to see what the Lens Studio community will create with these intuitive and powerful new tools.
