Snap said today that it is expanding its developer platform to allow developers to create face filters for the first time. Snap is launching seven new templates into Lens Studio to let creators make digital masks, four months after debuting its Lens Studio platform, which allowed creators to build the augmented reality devices Snap terms “world lenses.” Virtual baseball hats, face paint, and tools to connect three-dimensional objects to a user’s head are among the templates, which range in complexity.
In addition to new templates, the Lens Studio will now have Giphy integration. Snapchat launched the option to incorporate Giphy’s library of animated GIFs into snaps in February; now, they can also be seen in lenses. (They were just re-added to Snapchat and Instagram after the platforms identified and blocked a racist GIF in the integration.)
Snap claims that over 30,000 lenses were generated in the first two months, with over 1 billion views. In an interview, Eitan Pilipski, who leads Snap’s camera platform, stated, “We’re blown away by the participation, the amount of engagement, and the type of creativity that has happened.”
According to a beta tester I spoke with, the studio allows designers to create simple facial filters in as little as five minutes. After submitting it to Snap, the business provides a Snapcode and deep link that, when tapped, opens it for 24 hours within Snapchat.
The code remains active for a year after it is generated, allowing you to unlock it several times. Whether you produced the code yourself or obtained it from someone else, you can share it with others with a few taps.
Snapchat will build a story for all public snaps taken with the lens to promote creators’ work. If a Snapchat user starts the next dancing hot dog fad, you’ll be able to utilize that lens to browse any public snaps made to the Our Story feature in the last 24 hours.
In the Discover tab, community lenses will be highlighted, and you may unlock them by swiping up on the story.
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Snap also announced the Official Creator Program, which will provide extra advertising, technical assistance, and early access to new features and templates to top producers.
The intricacy of the face filter templates ranges from a two-dimensional image overlaid onto the head to more complex face-painting works.
Brian Garcia, a motion graphics designer who participated in the beta testing of the new filters, said they were simple to use.
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His first face filter, which transforms you into a bowtie-wearing cat, is now available. (Previously, he built the “Neon Boogie” world lens, which featured a computerized version of himself dancing in a purple leotard.)