Snapchat is making the first AI Fast Open Lens available for free in the US

Snapchat is creating a new “Imagine Lens,” the first AI-powered lens for fast and open image generation, available to all users for free. The Lens initially launched in September but only to paid subscribers. With Lens, users can edit their shots with custom prompts or create their own.

For example, you can ask the app to “turn me into an alien” after taking a selfie, or request a photo of an “angry cat.” The company suggests that you can use Lens to try out Halloween costume ideas, or reimagine your friend with a new look, among other things.

Results can be shared with friends, posted to your Snapchat story, or shared outside the app.

The expanded availability of AI Lens follows the launch of video creation AI apps from Meta (Meta AI) and OpenAI (Sora), which are vying for young people’s attention with more advanced AI tools and features than photo editing.

For example, Sora lets users create videos of themselves after providing the app with a one-time video and audio recording to capture their appearance. Friends can share these AI characters, called “Cameos,” with each other, so they can participate in videos together.

This puts pressure on other social media apps like Snapchat to keep up, so making AI image Lens free to use seems like a worthwhile investment for the app maker.

Until now, Snapchat’s AI Lens has only been available to Lens+ and Snapchat Platinum subscribers, the company says. With the expanded rollout, Snap is making a limited number of photo generations available to all free users as well. At launch, free users in the US will be able to access the new Lens, with plans underway for other markets, starting with Canada, Great Britain and Australia.

The lens can be found near the front of the Lens Carousel within the app, or you can search for it by name. To create, tap the caption to edit the prompt, or use one of the pre-loaded suggestions if you need inspiration.

The company notes that Snapchat users access Lenses more than 8 billion times per day.