Snapchat offers a variety of fun lenses and filters that you can use to enhance your photos and videos. However, many users find themselves seeing the same lenses and filters repeatedly. Luckily, there are several ways to unlock more options and access additional lenses and filters on Snapchat.
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What are Lenses and Filters on Snapchat?
Snapchat lenses and filters are augmented reality effects that you can apply to your snaps.
Lenses use facial recognition technology to apply interactive effects and animations to your face in real-time. For example, lenses can give you dog ears, change your eye color, make you look older, apply makeup effects, and more.
Filters are overlays that are added after you take a photo or video. Filters can change the look and feel of your snap by altering the colors, adding graphics or text, applying a geofilter based on your location, and more.
Both lenses and filters help you customize and enhance your snaps creatively.
How to Find New Lenses
Snapchat adds new sponsored and non-sponsored lenses daily. Here are some tips to discover new lenses:
- Swipe through your lens carousel: When in camera mode, tap the lens icon and swipe left and right to browse available lenses. Sponsored lenses are usually shown first.
- Unlock lenses from friends’ stories or snaps: If you see a fun lens in a friend’s story or snap, press and hold on their snap to unlock the lens and add it to your lens carousel.
- Browse featured lenses: Go to the lens explorer page or lens carousel and scroll down to browse lenses that are trending or featured that day.
- Search for lenses: Search using relevant keywords like “cat”, “anime”, etc to find lenses tied to that keyword.
- Follow Official Lens Creators: Follow lens creators like Snapchat to stay updated when they release new lenses.
- Use Snapcodes: Some lenses have unique snapcodes. Scan official snapcodes shared by Snapchat or lens creators to instantly unlock those lenses.
How to Get More Filters
Snapchat also regularly refreshes the filters available to users. Here are some tips to get more filter options:
- Check daily: Open your filter tray while viewing the camera screen and swipe left/right to see if new filters were added.
- Use geofilters: Go to locations that have custom geofilters tied to that place. Common locations include cities, landmarks, stadiums, restaurants, stores, events, etc.
- Attend events/parties: Event organizers can pay Snapchat to unlock custom geofilters for their event. Attend major events and parties to find unique geofilters.
- Travel: Travel to unlock geofilters unique to various locations around the world. Popular travel destinations tend to have geofilters.
- Enable filters: Make sure filters are enabled in your Snapchat settings. Go to Settings > Additional Services > Manage > Filters.
How Businesses Can Create Custom Lenses and Filters
If you have a business, you can also invest in sponsored Snapchat lenses and geofilters to promote your brand:
Sponsored Lenses: Partner with Snapchat to create custom branded lenses that users can access from the lens carousel. This gets your brand in front of Snapchat’s audience.
Custom Geofilters: Create geofilters for your business locations, events, parties, grand openings, conferences, etc. Users will unlock your geofilter and may share snaps with your branding.
AR Experiences: Build fun AR experiences like games, product demos, virtual try-ons, etc. with your branding baked in. This creates an interactive and engaging experience with your brand.
Tips for Using Lenses and Filters
Here are some tips to use lenses and filters effectively:
- Play around and get creative with mixing and matching lenses and filters for a unique snap.
- Pay attention to lens and filter details as some have hidden tricks when you switch cameras or use certain gestures.
- Use lenses that include your facial features rather than fully replace them to look more natural.
- Geofilters automatically add your location so enable location services on your phone.
- Save snaps with your favorite lenses and filters to memories so you can reuse their effects later.
- Follow Snapchat lens creators on other platforms like Twitter or Instagram to stay updated on new lens releases.
- If you see a lens you like in a friend’s snap, press and hold to instantly unlock and save it.
Conclusion
Snapchat is constantly expanding its library of lenses and filters, so there is always more to explore. Unlock new options daily by browsing featured lenses, checking for updates, traveling, attending events, following creators, and scanning snapcodes. Additionally, businesses can invest in custom branded AR experiences. With these tips, you’ll be able to access a diverse range of lenses and filters to make your snaps stand out!
