Snap redesigns Snapchat, adds new AI capabilities

Since introducing its generative AI assistant, Snap has been steadily increasing the amount of AI in its app. Now, the company is adding a new slate of AI-powered features as it begins testing a larger redesign of the app.

Snap often rolls out new AI features to its Snapchat+ subscribers first, and the company is continuing that trend with a new feature called “My Selfie.” The feature uses selfies to create AI-generated images of users and their friends (if they’re also subscribers) in creative poses and situations. The company is also rolling out a new “Grandparents Lens,” which uses AI to imagine what you might look like as an older person.

Snapchat+ subscribers will also get access to a new AI feature in Memories that tracks users’ previously saved Snaps. The change will allow Memories to show photos and videos that have been edited with AI-generated captions or new AR lens effects.

Additionally, Snap is beefing up its chatGPT-based MyAI assistant by adding the ability to “solve problems” from photos. The company says the assistant will be able to translate restaurant menus, identify plants and understand parking signs.

The new AI capabilities come as Snap begins testing a larger overhaul of its app that aims to make Snapchat, long criticized for its confusing interface, simpler and more intuitive. The new design will move conversations between friends and Stories content into a single view, with Stories at the top of conversations. (Interestingly, Snap previously combined user chats and Stories into a single channel in a previous, wildly unpopular design in 2018.) The new design will also eliminate the separate tab for Snap Map, placing it instead in a “chat” tab.

Instead of keeping separate sections for Spotlight and Stories, Snap will combine them into a single “Watch” feed that will algorithmically recommend content. While the current version of Snapchat has five separate sections, the “simplified” version will have just three, including the camera, which will still be the first screen users see when they launch the app.

Snap has struggled with making major design changes to its app in the past, so it plans to roll out the new look gradually, with the update only reaching a small number of users at first.