After leading by example for quite a while, Snap is going to start putting AR lenses built by third-party creators front-and-center in the Snapchat app.
The move, first reported by Mashable, will bring creator content to the main stage.
While third-party filters have been a hallmark of the app for quite awhile, Snapchat has generally stuck to its own guns when it comes to its lenses. That’s previously been the case, largely because there just hadn’t been a way for creators to build them. Then late last year, Snap launched Lens Studio which gave creators the ability to sprinkle some of the startup’s AR magic onto their work.
Things won’t be all that different for users, though there will be a little “i” icon on third-party lenses that can be tapped to reveal details about who created it. These lenses seem to fall in the “do it for exposure” arena right now as creators aren’t being compensated and they aren’t allowed to brand the lenses because they aren’t “promoted lenses.”
Creators building stuff on Lens Studios need to opt-in to potentially have their creations selected. This rollout will start popping up in users’ feeds later this month.
