Snapchat is now placing advertising on its main Chat tab, with Disney signing aboard as the lead partner with “Sponsored Snaps from Disney.” Taco Bell and McDonald’s are underwriting “Promoted Places.” Previously, Snapchat had kept the Chat tab ad-free. Users will now begin seeing “Sponsored Snaps” proffered by brands beside messages from their friends. “These new placements are a natural extension of the way people already engage with businesses on Snapchat and help advertisers expand their reach with the Snapchat community across two of the most widely and frequently used parts of our service,” explains Snap. Continue reading Snapchat Adds Advertising to Chat Tab with Disney a Sponsor

Snapchat+ is rolling out new artificial intelligence features that let subscribers use text prompts to create generative AI images to share with friends. In addition, the Dreams feature, which creates generative AI selfies, is now able to add your friends to those photos. Snapchat+ subscribers get one pack of 8 Dreams per month as part of their $3.99 monthly fee. An onscreen button labeled “AI” lets subscribers access the AI image generator to choose from a menu of prompts (including “sunny day at the beach” and “planet made of cheese”) or they can enter their own descriptions. Continue reading GenAI Lets Snapchat+ Subscribers Create and Share Images

Snapchat is rolling out a new feature for its premium Snapchat+ platform that enables users who send Snaps to My AI let the artificial intelligence know what they’re up to “receive a unique generative Snap back that keeps the conversation going” via My AI Snaps. The feature was previewed at the Snap Partner Summit in April as part of a larger push on AI updates, including the ability to invite the My AI chatbot to participate in group chats with friends and the ability to get AI Lens suggestions and place recommendations. In addition, the My AI chatbot — made free to all users this year — was updated to reply to users’ Snaps with a text-based response. Continue reading Snapchat+ Introduces ‘My AI Snaps’ for Chatbot Snap Backs

Snap is testing sponsored links for My AI, the chatbot introduced a year ago with Snapchat+ and made available free to all users last month. “We’re experimenting with new ways that My AI can surface useful information at the right moment during conversations. This includes early testing of sponsored links to connect our community with partners relevant to the conversation in the moment,” Snap said as part of its NewFronts announcements, emphasizing paid chat links are in “an early, experimental phase.” Messaging is a core Snapchat functionality, making conversational AI a natural enhancement, Snap Americas president Rob Wilk said. Continue reading Snap Promotes ‘My AI’ Sponsored Links Tests, New Ad Slots

More than 3 million users are now using the $3.99-per-month Snapchat+ subscription service that launched last June. The premium offering got a boost when the company added early access to its AI chatbot, called My AI. Snap will soon make My AI available free to Snapchat’s 750 million monthly users, the company announced Wednesday at its annual partner summit in Santa Monica, California. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told attendees the company is targeting 10 million users as a “medium-term goal” for Snapchat+, which in addition to the U.S. is available in the UK, Germany and United Arab Emirates. Continue reading ‘My AI’ Will Be Free for All as Snapchat+ Hits 3M Paying Subs

Popular social platform Snapchat is improving its AI chatbot as part of a larger set of updates (that includes an age filter and parental insights) and recently launched premium features (such as generative AI profiles backgrounds). The chatbot, My AI, was launched in February for Snapchat+ subscribers. Snap says it has since received feedback of inappropriate responses from My AI, which was built using OpenAI’s GPT technology, but claims the problems have been due in large part to users trying to “trick the chatbot into providing responses that do not conform to our guidelines.” The new tools are designed to keep My AI’s responses in check. Continue reading Snapchat Adds Safety Moderation Tools to Improve Chatbot

OpenAI is now allowing third-party developers integrate ChatGPT into their apps, a solution the company says will be a more cost-effective alternative. The language model can be used for more than chat, says OpenAI, which also has a new speech-to-text model called Whisper. The company is also touting gpt-3.5-turbo, calling it the “best model for many non-chat use cases.” With a major investment from Microsoft, and the eyes of the industry on it, OpenAI seems to be feeling some pressure to add earnings to the success it has as a thought leader. Continue reading OpenAI Targets Affordable AI with ChatGPT and Whisper APIs

Snapchat is launching My AI, a new chatbot running a customized version of the latest GPT technology from OpenAI. Available as an experimental feature to subscribers with a $3.99 per month Snapchat+ account, My AI rolls out starting this week, offering everything from birthday gift recommendations to weekend recreational plans, recipes and auto-generated poetry and prose. “As with all AI-powered chatbots, My AI is prone to hallucination and can be tricked into saying just about anything,” Snapchat cautions, explaining that “all conversations with My AI will be stored and may be reviewed to improve the product experience.” Continue reading Snapchat’s New AI Chatbot Is Powered by OpenAI GPT Tech

Snap Inc. reported its slowest-ever quarterly growth, with revenue up 6 percent to $1.13 billion year-over-year in Q3. Due in part to a 25 percent spending increase, Snapchat’s parent logged a net loss of $359 million, far exceeding the $72 million loss a year prior. Interestingly, Snap increased daily active users by 19 percent, to 363 million (surpassing analyst predictions of 358 million). Snap, like virtually every social media platform, has struggled to maintain revenue growth since Apple’s 2021 privacy changes made it harder to target ads. Continue reading Snap Adds Users but Experiences Its Slowest Revenue Growth

Snap Inc. is beginning the rollout of Snapchat+,  a subscription tier promising “exclusive, experimental and prerelease features” as well as priority support for a monthly fee of $3.99. Targeting “our most passionate users,” Snapchat+ will be available at launch in the U.S., Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with plans for further expansion as the tier evolves. The Snapchat+ launch follows similar moves by Twitter, with Twitter Blue, and Meta Platforms, with Facebook Subscriptions as social platforms seek to supplement advertising with additional revenue streams. Continue reading Snapchat+ Subscription Tier Launches in Limited Territories