Snapchat’s New AI Chatbot: What You Need to Know
Snapchat’s New AI Chatbot: What You Need to Know
Everyone seems to be jumping on the generative AI bandwagon these days. Snapchat has also embraced the technology with its own AI products following in the footsteps of big tech companies. In late February, the company introduced My AI, a playful AI chatbot powered by ChatGPT.
Now, at Snap Summit 2023 — Snapchat’s annual event for new innovations, features, and developer tools — the company is expanding the feature list for My AI while unveiling a number of other features. Let’s see what they are.
But that is not all. In addition to the expanded availability, My AI also got a lot of new features.
My AI can now be customized to be truly your own. Similar to how users can design their own Bitmoji, they can now also customize the appearance of My AI, give the bot a name, and start chatting. You can now also invite my AI to join your group chats by calling her with a simple “@” tag.
my ai The appearance of my AI can now be customized (Image: Snapchat)
Additionally, My AI will now be able to pull location recommendations from Snap Map and suggest relevant lenses. This will especially come in handy when you need a bot to suggest weekend activities for your family or find great Lens recommendations for a friend’s birthday wish.
My AI will also use the power of generative AI to create and send back images when you send an image, helping users have a visual conversation alongside text.
Additionally, at the event, Snapchat reminded users that it has made some behind-the-scenes improvements to My AI, allowing them to have a better chatting experience. The bot now follows community guidelines more strictly and even takes into account the Snapchatter’s age.
Snapchat is also using generative artificial intelligence in its lenses and is announcing a “new generation” of filters that use it. The company says that using this technology allows Lenses to work with AR faster and look more realistic than ever before.
snapchat generative AI filter Generative AI filter in action (Image: Snapchat)
Lenses are also tweaked to match the context of the photo or video the Snapchatter captured. These, the company says, will work through a combination of visual understanding of scene focus and an API that “understands factors including local weather forecast and time of day.” Snapchatters will also find Lens recommendations more relevant when people or pets are in the shot.
Snapchat allowed users to try out new cosmetics and clothing from major retailers. But last month, the company announced a new venture, AR Enterprise Services (ARES), which equips retailers with the tools to let their customers try on these items at home — in apps outside of Snapchat.
Now, at Partnership Summit 2023, Snapchat unveiled a new ARES service called AR Mirrors that allows businesses to use AR in their own physical spaces and events. Customers in these stores will be able to try on the products at participating stores, completely avoiding lengthy lines in the fitting rooms.
As an example, Snapchat demonstrated a new experience where shoppers can enter a Coca-Cola machine and control what happens next on their smartphones. The company says it will announce more such experiences soon, though it’s unclear when Snapchat users in India will be able to benefit from them.
For the concerts, Snapchat announced AR visuals through its in-app camera that interact with the visual production on stage and “bring the artist’s creative vision to life like never before.”
More new Snapchat features
Snapchat is rolling out new features to improve voice and video calls, stories, and Snap Maps. You can now use call lenses to appear together with your friends in one frame and play games while chatting. You can also share your nighttime adventures with the “After Dark” story feature and join communities with your classmates.
snapchat call lenses Calling Lenses on Snapchat
In addition, you can more easily share your location and view 3D landmarks and markers on the Snap map. These features are part of Snapchat’s efforts to make its app more fun and engaging for users.
