Snap has formally introduced Snap Games. Users can launch the new offering from their Chat bar and then start playing with their friends, with no installation involved. People can use the function to see who they are playing with, to send those players a chat, or to talk live with voice chat. The new service will being with six titles, namely Bitmoji Party, Tiny Royale from Zynga, Snake Squad from Game Closure, C.A.T.S. Drift Race from ZeptoLab, Zombie Rescue Squad from PikPok and Alphabear Hustle from Spry Fox.
More Originals
The announcement was made at Snap’s first summit for content and developer partners in Los Angeles. At the event, the company made a number of other announcements, the second being that it had a new slate of Snap Originals programming. Snap said the shows span docuseries and scripted comedies, and teen dramas and they are meant to be personal and intimate, in the same way people use their phones today.
The shows include Two Sides, the Can’t Talk Now teen soap, Sneakerheads from Indigo, Commanders from Dakota Pictures, Denton’s Death Date from Insurrection Media, While Black from Indigo, BuzzFeed’s upcoming daily afternoon show, Dead of Night from Bazelevs, Compton Dreams from October Films and, Stranded with Sam and Colby from Bunim/Murray.
Snap said that in the last year, the time Snapchatters spent watching Shows nearly tripled, though it did not specify how long.
More Lenses templates
Snap also said it is adding new function to Lenses, which it introduced four years ago. The company has added more augmented reality templates, including Landmarkers, to transform iconic landmarks in real time. There are also new templates for hand-tracking and body-tracking.
With Lenses, people can scan a math problem to get the answer, or a product, to see results on Amazon. They can also scan a song to see who sings it. They can in addition scan objects to give them glasses or other decorations: the sky to see whales swim, or their hand to watch butterflies emerge.
More Snap Kit experiences, including an Ad Kit for developers
Finally, Snap said that over 200 apps have integrated with its Snap Kit. The company presented a few more new Snap Kit experiences, namely App Stories, a Creative Kit, a Bitmoji Kit and an Ad Kit.
App Stories lets people share content right from the Snapchat camera to a Story inside another app, such as Tinder, Houseparty or AdventureAide.
Creative Kit will soon let people share custom stickers from their favourite services, right on Snap. They can use Netflix to share the show they are watching, use Breaker or Anchor to share the podcasts they are listening to, use Anghami (Middle East) or JioSavvn (India) to share a song, GoFundMe to share a meaningful cause or VSCO to share a photo.
The Bitmoji Kit lets people bring their Bitmoji with them to more places, such as Venmo, or Fitbit.
The Ad Kit gives developers access to the new Snap Audience Network and bring the Snap Ads mobile ad format to their apps. Snap said the product will help partners growth and provide advertisers with new ways to reach the Snapchat community. The company said it is now accepting applications for Ad Kit and App Stories.
