Snapchat has added a fun new AI activation for the holidays, with its new “Animate It” Lens now available for paying Snap users.
As you can see in this example, Snapchat’s new video AI Lens will enable you to activate an animation in your Snaps via text prompts. So you can ask it to add a cat pawing at your face, and the Lens will give you a custom animation that looks mostly like a cat, but also, kind of like something out of The Polar Express.
As explained by Snap:
“Available for Lens+ subscribers, the Animate It Lens leverages Snap’s internally developed AI video generation model to turn your ideas into short, shareable videos in seconds. Whether you want to animate a reaction, dream up a mini-movie, or turn a playful idea into a dynamic clip, Animate It allows you to create motion from pure imagination.”
It’s interesting that this is based on Snap’s internal AI video generation model, because thus far, Snapchat has largely relied on external AI tools to power its AI features. My AI, for example, uses large language models from OpenAI and Google to handle text-based queries.
The addition of its own, custom AI model suggests that Snap is working to build its own AI tools, though without significant data infrastructure, it’ll be difficult for Snap to go it alone with any AI project.
The new Lens is essentially an expansion of the first video AI Lenses that Snapchat launched back in March, which include custom animations of selected characters or objects that can be added to any clip.
In this application, you choose from one of several options (raccoon, fox, spring flowers), and Snap’s gen-AI engine will then animate your clip with your chosen addition.
So it’s less customizable, with your options restricted by certain objects, as opposed to this new variation, which enables you to add in whatever you like, based on your prompt.
How capable the system is will be interesting to note, again considering Snap’s limited AI capacity, but it could be a fun addition that’ll help Snap boost engagement over the holidays.
Animate it is available to Lens+ subscribers.
