Snapchat’s launching a new and improved variation of AR Try-On Lens, partnering with OPI on a new nail polish test experience in the app.
The new Try-On process will enable you to test out the latest shades of OPI nail polish via the Snapchat camera, which utilizes ‘Nails Segmentation’, an updated element available within Snapchat’s AR toolkit.
To be clear, Snapchat has offered nail polish try-on experiences before, but through improved systematic processes, this new variation is more responsive, more realistic, and offers new ways to showcase nail products via AR in the app.
As per Snapchat:
“Snapchat AR’s new nail polish try-on technology will apply polish and other 2D effects directly to a Snapchatter’s fingernail. With Nails Segmentation, brands can precisely add textures and designs, or track 2D color to a user's individual nail, creating a seamless try-on experience for the consumer.”
That could open up a range of new promotional opportunities, building on Snapchat’s existing Try On tools to facilitate more interaction within the discovery process.
Which is where Snapchat is increasingly leaning. While VR is the future, AR will be a critical bridge to online and IRL experiences. Couple this with the steady rise of eCommerce and it’s clear that AR will be just as transformative, if not more so, than the eventual metaverse shift.
As such, Snapchat’s been working to enhance its AR tools, in order to maintain its leadership in the space. A critical element on this front is Snapchat’s AR Enterprise Services (ARES) platform, which enables other companies to integrate Snapchat’s AR technology into their own apps, websites, and physical locations.
Advances in Snapchat’s AR offerings will enhance this, which will help to keep Snapchat at the cutting edge of the AR shift – even if it isn’t able to launch its own variation of AR-enabled glasses.
Which is still on the cards as well, though more recent cost-cutting may have hampered Snapchat’s efforts to produce an AR-enabled version of its Spectacles device.
Outside of the company, no one knows for sure where Snapchat is placed on this front, but even if it’s not a direct provider of AR tools, it can still be a central facilitator within that shift.
Snapchat has long been the AR leader, and that doesn’t look set to change anytime soon, with enhanced eCommerce AR tools like this set to drive ongoing opportunities for the company.
