Snap Inc. reveals new products and partnerships at annual summit
Snap Inc. has held its third Snap Partner Summit virtually, announcing a host of new products and partnerships across its developer, creator and augmented reality platforms. The summit kicked off with a keynote address by co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, and several other team members from across the company.
This year’s Partner Summit is the company’s most comprehensive look at that future—showcasing over a dozen new partnerships and partner-powered innovations that help people express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. This all comes together under Snap’s ambitions as a camera company, referencing its long-term vision for the camera, augmented reality, and ‘computing overlaid on the world around us.’
During the summit, the company announced that Snapchat now reaches over 500 million monthly active users (MAU), and that roughly 40% of its community is now located outside of North America and Europe. In the Middle East, its monthly addressable reach continues to grow substantially, now over 75 million unique Snapchatters, which is a 33% rise year on year as of March 2021.
These announcements made at the summit will ultimately help deepen engagement across Snapchat’s services, onboard more developers and creators to power experiences that the community loves, and give Snap’s business and ad partners new ways to leverage Snapchat, from AR to Maps to Minis, that drive their businesses.
A core theme of this year was ‘utility’. While many of Snap’s announcements are fun, they also deliver concrete business solutions for its partners, and utility for the community at large.
Snap is evolving Lenses to serve its partners and community, introducing new and improved shopping features and capabilities for brands, and experiences for Snapchatters. Plus, it announced “one more thing” — the next generation of Spectacles, Snap’s first pair of glasses that bring augmented reality to life.
- Introducing Scan to the home screen + Screenshop for e-commerce — more than 170 million Snapchatters use Scan every month, and Snap is now adding Scan to its home camera screen. Scan matches what you see through the camera with relevant AR experiences.
- Introducing major AR try-on upgrades — apparel & accessories are the largest shopping category by far among teenagers. Snap is greatly upgrading its AR shopping capabilities, including new ‘voice-enabled commands’ let you verbally control AR Lenses, new ‘gesture-enabled controls’ let you physically signal Lenses to take an action, new ‘wrist-tracking technology’ that kicks off AR try-on for watches and jewelry, and much more.
- Introducing Public Profiles for Businesses — now any partner can establish a permanent presence on Snapchat to showcase their best AR Lenses and Stories — plus a ‘Shop’ page where Snapchatters can browse and buy, which turns Snapchat into a new organic point of sale. Eventually, Public Profiles will also enable businesses to integrate with Map, adding more reach across the core tabs of Snapchat.
- Introducing Connected Lenses — for the first time, friends can interact with each other through Lenses, from across the room or across the world. For example, build a LEGO kit together, wherever you are.
- Introducing API-powered Lenses — Brands can soon seamlessly build AR Shopping Lenses by simply uploading their product catalogues and 3D product assets through Snap’s API in Business Manager. Snapchatters using these Lenses will get real-time product and pricing updates, and brands will see new analytics on Lens usage.
- Introducing Lens Studio 4.0 — Snap’s AR creator ecosystem is booming: announcing 200,000+ Lens Creators around the world, who have made nearly 2 million Lenses, that have been viewed by Snapchatters more than 2 trillion times. It updated Lens Studio, which is free desktop software, adds 3D Body Mesh, Cloth Simulation, and a Visual Effects Editor that make AR look and move more realistically.
Snapchat is an increasingly indispensable platform for developers — it now has over 250,000 developers with Snap Kit, nearly 30 million people playing Snap Games every month, and now Map Layers.
- Introducing Map Layers — this important new feature layers specialized experiences from partners and Snap right on the Map, personalized for you. The Infatuation’s Layer shows you great restaurants, Ticketmaster’s Layer shows you which concerts are playing where, and the own Memories Layer shows you on the Map where you took your favorite saved Snaps.
- Introducing Poshmark & Ticketmaster Minis + prominent new home for Games & Minis — introducing the Poshmark Mini to join daily shopping events, and Ticketmaster Mini to browse shows and find friends to go with. And you can now find Minis and Games in a more accessible ‘tray’ in the app — just swipe down from the home Camera screen. This is where Snap Map was found before it was moved to a main tab.
- Bitmoji partnership with Unity — beginning today, game developers can bring Bitmoji into their mobile, PC and console games, right through the Unity platform.
- Introducing Sticker Kit — this new integration for app developers brings 34+ million Bitmoji, Stickers, and GIFs from Snapchat right into your app, and at your community’s fingertips.
Snapchat is a place where Creators can grow their audience, build their business and entertain its community.
- Introducing Story Studio — this new standalone app gives Creators a suite of intuitive, powerful editing tools to make professional content for mobile, on mobile. Use it to explore insights, like what’s trending across Snapchat’s Sounds, #Topics, and Lenses, and share videos right to Snapchat or anywhere else.
- Introducing Gifting — subscribers can now send Gifts to official Snap Stars to kickstart conversations. Snap Stars earn a share of the revenue from Gifts, which are received through Story Replies and purchased via in Snapchat Tokens.
- Introducing Spotlight on the web — a new destination at snapchat.com/spotlight where Creators can upload video into Spotlight directly from Chrome or Safari, and anyone, even without a Snapchat account, can see the best of what’s happening.
- Introducing Creator Marketplace — brands can use this new portal in the self-serve Business Manager to find and contact verified creators, starting with top AR Lens Creators and, in the future, Snap Stars and Creators on Spotlight.
