Snapchat has unveiled a raft of new features as part of its Partner Summit for 2020.
Headlining the updates was the announcement of new content deals and Snap Originals.
Disney, ESPN, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, the NBA and NFL have all expanded content partnerships, which will see content delivered to the Snapchat Discover platform, including a series with comedian Kevin Hart.
These deals include Snap Originals, mobile shows created exclusively for Snapchat’s audience.
Snap also unveiled ‘Happening Now’, a new feature to help Snapchat users consumer breaking news.
It comes as 125 million people tuned in to Snapchat for their news this year, while time spent watching Discover content went up 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2020.
Over 80 per cent of Snapchat’s daily viewers watch content on Discover three days a week or more.
for marketers
The changes will also impact Snap’s advertising offering.
The new Snapchat Action Bar, which makes content more prominent in the app. It foregrounds Discover, as well as the Snap Map. This will make it easier to access premium content on Snapchat, where advertisers can run video ads.
There will also now be business listings in Snap Map as a way to promote small businesses.
Snap has also evolved its Landmarker technology for shared AR experiences for multiple Snapchatters in larger areas.
There, they can collaborate creatively and explore a new AR world together.
ar features bolstered
Snap has also expanded its Creative Kit to include AR with Dynamic Lenses
The changes will make it easier for users to create AR experiences and includes new camera features and integrations.
Snap has updated Lens Studio with new features including SnapML, which allows developers to bing their machine learning models to Lenses.
Lens Studio now offers Face Landmarks and Face Expressions for improved facial tracking.
