1. AR Is More Than Face Filters
The glow-up is real. While dog ears and rainbows might be what first came to mind during the early days of Snapchat, our AR capabilities and underlying technology have expanded exponentially since then. Snap AR platforms and products are no longer solely for self-expression, but for developing comprehensive capabilities across a wide range of industries. Fashion, education, e-commerce, science, business — virtually every industry now has the ability to seamlessly integrate augmented reality in a way that’s authentic to its community.
During our Dream It, Build It with Snap AR session at AWE, we had the opportunity to highlight several companies scaling their businesses in partnership with Snap AR. Blnk, an LA-based AR agency, has experienced a 20X revenue increase since building with Snap AR. Wabisabi, a Mexico City-based AR studio, has seen revenue skyrocket 250% while partnering with Snap AR.
We know that AR is most impactful when it’s woven seamlessly into the world around us. Whether it’s through our mobile phones or products like Spectacles, AR toes that line between the everyday and the extraordinary. But it is always rooted in reality, taking what we know and amplifying it in ways we, up until now, could only imagine.
2. AR Technology Is Reaching New Heights
Every day, AR technology is getting better at understanding the world around us, enabling AR experiences rooted in a new level of realism. From learning about a landmark’s history to shopping for new summer staples, advanced AR technology can solve everyday problems and implement helpful tools and resources for people and businesses to interact with AR in their daily lives.
For Snap, the heart of AR creation lies in Lens Studio. We take the most innovative AR, machine learning, and computer vision technologies developed by our team — like 3D Body Mesh, object recognition and location-based AR — and make all these tools available for free in Lens Studio. Beginners and advanced developers alike have all the resources needed to launch Lenses that fit their unique objectives.
Our education sessions at AWE expanded on this. Snap engineers led workshops and discussions that put AR technology on full display. A session on building fashion and retail experiences highlighted how companies can take advantage of capabilities like Try-On Lenses to provide consumers with realistic product try-on and testing through AR. Another session focused on how implementing these 3D experiences into the e-commerce world can have a positive impact on the relationship between companies and their customers — for example, by reducing product return rates.
3. Community, Not Competition, Moves AR Forward
AR is reaching and impacting more people than ever before as developers and consumers alike adopt the technology into their daily lives. Just on our platform alone, over 250 million people engage with AR every day, and over 250,000 Lens Creators have built upwards of 2.5 million Lenses through Lens Studio.
Beyond Snapchat, developers and partners are bringing Snap’s Camera technology into their own mobile apps on iOS and Android through Camera Kit. Our AR SDK is unleashing innovative ways for AR to bring a new dimension to customer experiences.
Camera Kit has been adopted by a wide range of partners — from global brands like Samsung and Microsoft’s Flipgrid, to digital fashion apps like DressX and storytime apps like Zoog.
Looking at the AR community at large, collaboration is the key to continue building out the AR landscape. That’s why events like AWE have such an immense impact. By gathering the leading AR/VR voices, minds, and big thinkers together, we continually discover new ways to create more useful, impactful, and expressive augmented reality.
