At its annual Snap Partner Summit on Tuesday, the Snapchat maker announced a series of new AI features coming to its app. Most notably, the app’s My AI chatbot is being updated to work more like Google Lens, as it can now respond to more complex Snaps.
You can now snap a picture of a menu in a foreign item and send it to My AI to get an English translation for instance. Plus, you can take a picture of a plant and send it to the chatbot to find out what it’s called.
You will also be able to snap a picture of a parking sign and send it to the chatbot to quickly understand whether you can park at a specific location.
Similar features were first made available to mobile consumers by Google Lens.
The launch is another indication that Snapchat is looking to make My AI more of a useful tool, as opposed to just an entertainment feature. A few months ago, Snapchat rolled out the ability for users to set in-app reminders and countdowns through My AI. The new features announced today add more useful functionality to the chatbot, as Snap is trying to get users to open up its social app when they have certain search queries.
In addition to the updates to My AI, Snap announced that its “My Selfie” feature will enable AI-powered edits in Memories (saved Snaps) for Snapchat+ premium subscribers. This feature will be used to spruce up your existing Snaps by adding captions and Lenses to Snaps that you have stored in your Memories archive. For instance, if you saved a picture of yourself in your Memories, Snapchat may add a Lens on top of it to reimagine yourself as a Renaissance painting.
Plus, you can now opt-in to appear in AI-generated images alongside your friends. For instance, the app may create an AI-generated Snap of you and your friend as lawyers or Olympic swimmers.
Snapchat also announced that it’s going to launch an AI-powered Lens that will allow users to see what they will look like in the future. The launch appears to be Snapchat’s response to TikTok’s popular old-age filter.
Elsewhere on the app, Snapchat revealed that it’s rolling out improved HD video calls and Snap Mail, which lets you leave your friend a Snap if they don’t answer your call. The app is also going to start showing local time zones in chats to make it easier for people to know when to connect with friends around the world.
