One of the problems of a monopoly is that it discourages innovation, and for the longest time ever Snapchat kind of had the monopoly on the social scene where its Stories feature was one of its unique selling points. That is until Instagram came along and actually offered a version that some would argue is better.
The good news is that the competition has spurred Snapchat to finally make some changes, such as to start featuring more creator-made lenses within the app’s carousel. Starting later this month, Snapchat will start to feature creator-made lenses within its app, making them more prominent and accessible.
As Mashable points out, Snapchat hasn’t really bothered to engage with its influencers, artists, and creators, at least until more recently where like we said, Instagram’s Stories started offering these users an alternative platform to reach their audience. The changes will be slow at first with only a few artists being shown at a time, but presumably this will increase over time.
Lenses that are created by the artist will also show their Snapchat display name to give them credit. We expect that there will be a ton of different lenses added over time, thanks to the launch of Snapchat’s Lens Studio which allows anyone to create lenses and upload them for approval. At the moment Lenses cannot be branded or sold, which means that for now creators won’t be able to monetize them.
Filed in . Read more about Apps, Augmented Reality (AR), Snap and Snapchat.