Snapchat is making its new “Imagine Lens,” the company’s first open AI lens for creating open-line images, available to all users for free. Lens was originally launched in September but only for paid subscribers. With Lens, users can edit their own Snaps using custom prompts or create their own.
For example, you could ask the app to “Turn me into an alien” after taking a selfie, or ask for a picture of a “grumpy cat.” The company suggests using Lens to try out Halloween costume ideas or reimagine your friend in a new look, among other things.
Results can be shared with friends, posted to your Snapchat Story, or shared outside of the app.
The expanded availability of AI Lens follows the release of AI video-making apps from Meta (Meta AI) and OpenAI (Sora), which are competing for young people’s attention with even more advanced AI tools and features than photo editing.
For example, Sora allows users to create videos of themselves after providing the app with a one-time video and audio recording to record their appearance. Friends can share these AI personas, called “cameos,” with each other so they can star in videos together.
This puts pressure on other social media apps like Snapchat to keep up, so free use of the AI image lens seems like a worthwhile investment for the app maker.
Until now, Snapchat’s AI Lens was only available to Lens+ and Snapchat Platinum subscribers, the company says. With the extended rollout, Snap is also making a limited number of image generations available to all free users. At launch, free users in the US will be able to access the new lens, with plans for other markets underway, starting with Canada, Great Britain and Australia.
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The lens is near the front of the app’s lens carousel, or you can search for it by name. To create, tap the caption to edit your prompt, or use one of the preloaded suggestions if you need inspiration.
The company notes that Snapchat users access lenses more than 8 billion times a day.
