Snapchat's new Lens Studio lets anyone make AR based World Lens

Snapchat is launching the Lens Studio today, significantly enhancing its prospects of working with a higher number of advertisers by letting them build AR based World Lens themselves.

Snapchat’s World Lens insert interactive AR based 3D objects in your surroundings, and now without any much further hassle, brands can create their own World Lens with Lens Studio and share them through QR Snapcodes. These brand created World Lens will last for 24 hours once unlocked, and Snapchat will not be putting them in their selection of filters, hence the QR Codes.

If businesses intend to put their filters into Snapchat’s main camera, they will have to “pay a partnered creative agency to build them a special effect and then buy Sponsored Lens ads from Snap.”

Lens Studio is an app for both Mac and Windows, and Snap claims its fairly easy to use with guides and tools that designers, developers and even students can use to create their own Lens.

Snap’s blog post says, “With the launch of Lens Studio, we’re excited to make Lenses more accessible to creators, and experiences within Snapchat more personal and diverse.”

Engadget’s Jon Fingas writes on the product’s potential for abuse and the contingencies Snap has created, ”Snap is aware of the potential for abuse. There's an initial moderation process to make sure a World Lens isn't offensive, and you can report Lenses to a moderation team if offending examples somehow slip through the cracks.”

Under increasing pressure from Instagram lately, this is a solid statement from Snapchat. It opens the floodgates to a lot of creativity and fun for their users, and the potential to reach those users for businesses looking towards welcoming Snapchat into their Social Media Marketing strategy.

With more than 178 million users, Snapchat has effectively garnered enough popularity for its lenses that breaches the impressive threshold. Nearly one-third of Snapchat’s user base have fun with their Lenses for three minutes each day, which comes up to 500 years every day! Source

Snap’s VP of engineering and camera platform leader Eitan Pilipski told TechCrunch, “There’s something magical about coming back every day and finding that there’s a new experience.”

By early next year, we might know whether Lens Studio has managed to drag Snapchat on the path to profitability!