Snap Inc. said at its fifth annual Lens Fest augmented reality developer conference Tuesday that there are now 300,000 AR creators and developers on its platform, up from 250,000 last year, and they are behind over 3 million AR lenses, up from 2.5 million in 2021.
The company also kicked off a new global “Lensathon” with a prize pool of $200,000, with creators having until Jan. 31 to submit their lenses for their piece of the pie, and Snap detailed some of the lenses from its previous Lensathon, held earlier this year.
Paris-based Flat Pixel created fast-faced multiplayer AR game Danger Bot, in which players work together to defeat a robot.
Amsterdam-based Beyond Studio crafted immersive, futuristic fashion try-on experience Hybrid Jacket.
Michael French from Los Angeles transformed the fountain at the Los Angeles Central Library into interactive educational lessons for people who scanned their library card with The Knowledge Pool.
Hundreds of developers from 30 countries built lenses in Lens Studio for Snap’s Spectacles camera sunglasses.
Snap also revealed at its event that a small group of creators is experimenting with a new kind of lens that enables Snapchatters to unlock digital goods with in-application currency Snap Tokens.
Goods including AR items, extra tools within a lens and unlockable power-ups can be purchased, and Snap said lenses with this option will roll out in the coming weeks in selection locations, as well as in Lens Carousel and Lens Explorer.
On the ecommerce front, Snap said 92% of Generation Z is interested in using AR for shopping while 80% of shoppers felt more confident about their purchases after incorporating AR into the process and 66% of shoppers who use AR are less likely to return their purchases.
The company cited new use cases and businesses stemming from its Lens Studio free-to-use AR creation software, which was released five years ago, noting that Los Angeles-based AR studio Paper Triangles made nearly $4 million in 2021 creating lenses for brands including Crocs and Sephora, while Snap partners such as HBO Max and Live Nation are actively hiring developers to build new AR experiences.
Snap said in a blog post, “363 million people use our Snapchat camera technology every day on average to talk with their friends and family, try on new looks or learn something new about the world around them. Snapchatters engage with AR experiences an average of 6 billion times per day, evolving the way we use computing in our daily lives … AR creators, developers and partners are tapping into our community’s engagement and excitement about AR today and its vast potential for the future.”
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