Snapchat has introduced AI Video Lenses for those paying $16 per month for its Platinum tier. Powered by Snap’s custom-built generative video model, the initial three releases are a fox that perches on your shoulder, rambunctious racoons and a large bouquet of flowers with a zoom out effect. After selecting an AI Video Lens and applying it to a Snap, the AI video generates in the background, auto-saving save to Memories while users are free to continue messaging and Snapping on the app. The resulting video can be shared with friends or to Stories and Spotlight.

Snap showcases the first three AI Video Lenses in a news post and says new ones will be “coming soon” to the Lens Carousel, with more added weekly thereafter.

TechCrunch describes Snap as “a leader in AR” that has “has also been investing in AI over the past few years alongside nearly every other tech company.” These new AI Video Lenses, TechCrunch says, give Snap a competitive edge in the form of a feature that is not yet available on rival platforms “including Instagram and TikTok.”

Digital Trends reports that it’s “unclear whether Snapchat will let users create their own video AI lenses down the road,” pointing out that its free Lens Studio toolkit lets users create Lenses and custom face filters to share.

“Snap offers generative AI capabilities in the Lens Studio, which allows any person to create custom lenses using a text or image prompt,” Digital Trends writes, adding that it “comes with its onboard AI assistant to help users with their projects.”

Snapchat added the ad-free Platinum tier in February. Its AI Video Lens launch follows Snap’s generative video preview at its September 2024 Partner Summit, where the company said it would be using Google’s Gemini for its My AI chatbot.

Snap has also tapped OpenAI’s generative abilities, and “now also building its own in-house models,” TechCrunch writes, noting that “last month, the company unveiled an AI text-to-image research model for mobile devices that will power some of Snapchat’s features in the coming months.”