Snap Inc. has held its third Snap Partner Summit virtually, declaring a host of new products and partnerships across its developer, creator and augmented reality platforms. The summit set a start with a keynote address by co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, and several other team members from across the company. This years Partner Summit is the companys most broad look at that future showcasing over a dozen new partnerships and partner-powered innovations that help people express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. This all comes together under Snaps ambitions as a camera company, ascribe its long-term vision for the camera, augmented reality, and computing overlaid on the world around us.

During the summit, the company declared that Snapchat now reaches over 500 million monthly active users (MAU), and that roughly 40% of its community is now located outside of North America and Europe. In the Middle East, its monthly addressable reach continues to grow substantially, now over 75 million unique Snapchatters, which is a 33% rise year on year as of March 2021.

These declarations made at the summit will ultimately help expand engagement across Snapchats services, onboard more developers and creators to power experiences that the community loves, and give Snaps business and ad partners new ways to leverage Snapchat, from AR to Maps to Minis, that drive their businesses.

Utility is the core theme of this year was. While many of Snaps announcements are fun, they also deliver concrete business solutions for its partners, and utility for the community at large.

Augmented Reality for Brands & Partners

Snap is expanding Lenses to serve its partners and community, introducing new and improved shopping features and capabilities for brands, and experiences for Snapchatters. Plus, it disclosed one more thing -- the next generation of Spectacles, Snaps first pair of glasses that bring augmented reality to life.

Introducing Scan to the home screen + Screenshop for e-commerce more than 170 million Snapchatters use Scan every month, and Snap is now adding Scan to its home camera screen. Scan matches what you see through the camera with relevant AR experiences.

Introducing major AR try-on upgrades apparel & accessories are the largest shopping divisions by far among teenagers. Snap is greatly upgrading its AR shopping capabilities, including new voice-enabled commands let you verbally control AR Lenses, new gesture-enabled controls let you physically signal Lenses to take an action, new wrist-tracking technology that kicks off AR try-on for watches and jewelry, and much more.

Introducing Public Profiles for Businesses now any partner can establish a permanent existence on Snapchat to showcase their best AR Lenses and Stories plus a Shop page where Snapchatters can browse and buy, which turns Snapchat into a new organic point of sale. Eventually, Public Profiles will also enable businesses to integrate with Map, adding more reach across the core tabs of Snapchat.

Introducing Connected Lenses for the first time, friends can interact with each other through Lenses, from across the room or across the world. For example, build a LEGO kit together, wherever you are.

Introducing API-powered Lenses Brands can soon seamlessly build AR Shopping Lenses by simply uploading their product catalogues and 3D product assets through Snaps API in Business Manager. Snapchatters using these Lenses will get real-time product and pricing updates, and brands will see new analytics on Lens usage.

Introducing Lens Studio 4.0 Snaps AR creator ecosystem is booming: announcing 200,000+ Lens Creators around the world, who have made nearly 2 million Lenses, that have been viewed by Snapchatters more than 2 trillion times. It updated Lens Studio, which is free desktop software, adds 3D Body Mesh, Cloth Simulation, and a Visual Effects Editor that make AR look and move more realistically.

Developers

Snapchat is an increasingly indispensable platform for developers it now has over 250,000 developers with Snap Kit, nearly 30 million people playing Snap Games every month, and now Map Layers.

Introducing Map Layers this important new feature layers specialized experiences from partners and Snap right on the Map, personalized for you. The Infatuations Layer shows you great restaurants, Ticketmasters Layer shows you which concerts are playing where, and the own Memories Layer shows you on the Map where you took your favorite saved Snaps.

Introducing Poshmark & Ticketmaster Minis + prominent new home for Games & Minis introducing the Poshmark Mini to join daily shopping events, and Ticketmaster Mini to browse shows and find friends to go with. And you can now find Minis and Games in a more accessible tray in the app just swipe down from the home Camera screen. This is where Snap Map was found before it was moved to a main tab.

Bitmoji partnership with Unity beginning today, game developers can bring Bitmoji into their mobile, PC and console games, right through the Unity platform.

Introducing Sticker Kit this new assimilation for app developers brings 34+ million Bitmoji, Stickers, and GIFs from Snapchat right into your app, and at your communitys fingertips.

Creators

Snapchat is a place where Creators can grow their audience, build their business and entertain its community.

Introducing Story Studio this new standalone app gives Creators a suite of intuitive, powerful editing tools to make professional content for mobile, on mobile. Use it to explore insights, like what's trending across Snapchats Sounds, #Topics, and Lenses, and share videos right to Snapchat or anywhere else.

Introducing Gifting subscribers can now send Gifts to official Snap Stars to kickstart conversations. Snap Stars earn a share of the revenue from Gifts, which are received through Story Replies and purchased via in Snapchat Tokens.

Introducing Spotlight on the web a new destination at snapchat.com/spotlight where Creators can upload video into Spotlight directly from Chrome or Safari, and anyone, even without a Snapchat account, can see the best of whats happening.

Introducing Creator Marketplace brands can use this new portal in the self-serve Business Manager to find and contact verified creators, starting with top AR Lens Creators and, in the future, Snap Stars and Creators on Spotlight.

In addition, Snap launched a new, multi-year partnership with Re:wild, an organization that protects and restores the wild and thats reimagining what a conservation movement can look like. The company also recently declared plans to make Snapchat more inclusive, working with several noted directors of photography from the film industry to learn techniques they use to best capture actors with darker skin tones. At this Summit, it announced that these features will become available in Camera Kit, so developers all over the world can easily make their cameras more inclusive.