Snap Inc has unveiled Lens Studio 5.0 Beta, which offers several new benefits. The announcement was made at its sixth annual Lens Fest 2023 event. The new version of Lens Studio supports more advanced AR development by collaborative teams. The new version offers several new benefits such as:Better performance for building more complex AR projects, and now projects load 18x faster. The compamny teamed up with Open AI to offer a new ChatGPT Remote API. Now, any Lens developer can leverage ChatGPT in their Lenses, unlocking new types of learning, conversational, and creative experiences for Snapchatters. Also, a new 3D face mask generator enables anyone to build their first potentially viral self-expression Lens within a matter of seconds, combining Gen AI and Snap's state-of-the-art face mesh capabilities.5.0 Beta also supports version control tools like Git for better project management. Multiple developers will be able work on projects at the same time. AR developers from around the world attended the event to celebrate the innovation and creativity of community, and share new tools for building the next generation of AR experiences. According to Snap, there are now 330,000 developers building on Snap’s AR platform who have created nearly 3.5 million Lenses, which in the last year have been viewed by Snapchatters more than 3 trillion times.The company said that its mission is to offer this growing AR community the most advanced tools available to build next-generation experiences for the Snapchat community and beyond through Camera Kit and Spectacles. Beyond new tools, Snap is continually finding new ways to support developers as they build their business and audience on its platform. Last year Snap introduced Lenses with Digital Goods so developers could build business models directly into their Lenses. Now, Digital Goods are available to any developer so they can offer exclusive AR features within a Lens that Snapchatters can unlock for a fee. A new section of Lens Explorer will promote Lenses with Digital Goods so they’re easy for Snapchatters to find and try.Snap has also seen great momentum with our Lens Creator Rewards programme which kicked off this summer, offering a monthly reward of up to $7,200 dollars for top-performing Lenses in selection regions. In the first month, more than 45,000 Lenses opted in, generating over 5 billion Lens interactions by Snapchatters.

Snap has announced its Lens Fest Awards for AR developers. The event, to be live-streamed on November 9, 2023, will bring together creators, developers, and partners to celebrate augmented reality technology.This fest is an opportunity to bring together the vibrant Snap AR community of visionaries, innovators, and dreamers that are collaborating to push boundaries, redefine what’s possible with augmented reality, and build businesses along the way. The virtual sessions and networking will allow the global creator community to connect, learn and acknowledge best-in-class AR. Creatives can submit their lenses to compete with the world’s top AR creators at the Lens Fest Awards.The voting process will include judges from the Snap team who will bring their expert perspectives to select their favorite AR experiences this year.The categories include Breakthrough lens of the year, Snapchat lens of the year, Best of camera kit, and moonshot.