Now, at Snap Summit 2023 – Snapchat’s annual event for new innovations, features, and tools for developers – the company is expanding the feature list for My AI while also unveiling a host of other features. Let’s see what they are.

What’s next for My AI?

If you are unfamiliar with My AI, it’s an experimental chatbot powered by ChatGPT, designed to be a personal sidekick that can answer trivia questions, offer advice, help plan trips, suggest recipes, and more. While the bot has been limited to Snapchat+ subscribers so far, Snap has announced that My AI is now rolling out globally for all users.

But that’s not all. Alongside the expanded availability, My AI has also gained a bunch of new features.

My AI can now be personalised to make it truly your own. Similar to how users can design their own Bitmoji, they can now also customise My AI’s look, give the bot a name, and begin chatting. You can now also invite my AI to join your group chats and summon it with a simple “@” tag.

 My AI’s look can now be customised (Image: Snapchat)

Additionally, My AI will now be able to pull place recommendations for you from the Snap Map and suggest relevant lenses. This will be particularly useful when you need the bot to suggest weekend activities for your family or find a great Lens recommendation for wishing a friend a happy birthday.

My AI will also be leveraging the power of generative AI to create and send snaps back to you when you send it a snap, helping users keep a visual conversation going alongside a textual one.

Aside from this, at the event, Snapchat reminded users that it has made several behind-the-scenes improvements to My AI, letting them have a better chatting experience. The bot now adheres more strictly to community guidelines and even takes the Snapchatter’s age into consideration.

Generative AI in Lenses

Snapchat is also employing generative AI in its Lenses, announcing a “new generation” of filters powered by it. The company says that leveraging the technology allows Lenses to work with AR faster and look more realistic than ever before.

 Generative AI filter in action (Image: Snapchat)

Lenses are also being enhanced to fit with the context of a photo or video a Snapchatter has captured. These, the company says, will work through a combination of visual understanding of the scene in focus and API that “understand factors including the local weather forecast and time of day.” Snapchatters will also find more apt Lens recommendations when people or pets are captured in the frame.

Snapchat goes big on AR

Snapchat has allowed users to try on new cosmetics and outfits from major retailers. But last month the company announced a new business, AR Enterprise Services (ARES) that equips retailers with tools that let their customers try on those items at home – in apps outside of Snapchat.

Now at the Partnership Summit 2023, Snapchat introduced a new ARES service called AR Mirrors, letting businesses leverage AR in their own physical spaces and events. Customers at these stores will be able to try on products at participating stores effectively avoiding lengthy trial room queues altogether.

 Snapchat’s ARES in action (Image: Snapchat)

As an example, Snapchat demonstrated a new experience where shoppers can step up to a Coca-Cola vending machine and control what comes next on their smartphones. The company says it’ll be announcing more such experiences soon, although it isn’t clear when Snapchat users in India will be able to benefit from them.

For concerts, Snapchat has announced AR visuals through its in-app camera that interact with the on-stage visual production, “bringing the artist’s creative vision to life like never before.”

Other new Snapchat features

Snapchat is introducing new features to enhance its voice and video calling, stories, and Snap Map. You can now use calling lenses to appear together with your friends in one frame and play games while chatting. You can also share your late-night adventures with the ‘After Dark’ story feature and join communities with your classmates.

 Calling Lenses on Snapchat (Image: Snapchat)

Additionally, you can share your location more easily and see 3D landmarks and tags on the Snap Map. These features are part of Snapchat’s efforts to make its app more fun and engaging for its users.

New tools for creators on Snapchat

Snapchat is also enhancing the experience for creators on the platform. Creators helping the community discover “can’t miss” restaurants can now tag locations in Spotlight Snaps. Creators can now also save stories to their profile so that their audience can access those from the Stories page.

Creators can now add a Linktree, the link-in-bio platform, to their public profile. Lastly, there’s a new tool that recommends Sounds to pair with Lenses to help make Snaps “more expressive.”

Snapchat has witnessed rapid growth in its daily active users, and the company has been consistently working towards offering its userbase with innovative ways of engagement. With the latest array of tools and features, the platform aims to reinforce its position as one of the most widely-used social applications.