Snapchat brings Story Replies, Happening Now, Local Lenses, and more features (Image: Bloomberg)

At Snap Partner Summit 2020, Snapchat brings a host of new features for its users and also developers out there. The social media platform gets new Camera Kit, Snap Minis, Happening Now, Scan, Local Lenses, Action Bar, Story Replies, well-being features and more. Most of these features are available for the users in the US and will come to other markets soon. It also brings some new features for the gamers such as Bitmoji for Games, and also releases Snap Originals. Here’s everything Snapchat announced at the Snap Partner Summit.

Snap introduces new ways to navigate Snapchat, as well as new features for the Snap Map and Stories allowing users to connect with the Snapchat community easily. The new Action Bar provides top-level navigation when users open the app. It changes contextually based on what the user is doing or watching. Adding on, Snapchat adds Places to Snap Map, a personal map that shows what your friends are up to and highlights perspectives from the Snapchat community. This feature will easily find the spots that are popular with Snapchat community. Snapchat adds millions of listings for businesses around the world.

The Place Profile includes Snaps from the location, the address, hours of operation, and reviews from TripAdvisor and Foursquare. It also makes it easy to order food via Postmates, DoorDash, and Uber Eats in the US. Places are rolling out on Android and iOS. Additionally, Snapchat also makes it easy for local businesses to re-engage their customers as they reopen by providing free ad credits.

Snapchat also rolls out Story Replies to make it easy to communicate with the Snap Stars you’re following. “We filter out bullying and hate speech to make sure that Snap Stars feel the love from their fans. Snap Stars can turn Story Replies into stickers and add them to their Stories to power things like Q&A Sessions,” the Snap blogpost notes.

Snapchat gets Happening Now feature which will let Snapchatters find what’s going on in the world at any time.

It also adds new, advanced AR features to Lens Studio called SnapML. This allows any developer bring their own machine learning models directly into Lens Studio to power Lenses. With this feature coming in, anyone can “create their own Lenses with neural networks, expanding the possibilities for Lenses that can transform the world.” Snapchat has partnered with Wannaby, Prisma, CV2020, and Official Lens Creators on the first SnapML creations.

Furthermore, Snapchat adds Local Lenses. To use it Snapchatters will just need to “Press and hold” on the camera screen to unlock relevant, helpful Lenses based on what they see in front of them. Snapchatters will now able to identify 90 per cent of all known plants and trees with the help of PlantSnap, recognize 400 breeds powered by Dog Scanner, scan the iconic Louis Vuitton monogram to be transported to a virtual installation displaying their classic trunks and latest collection.

Later this year, Snapchat will introduce Nutrition Scanner that will give a rating on the quality of ingredients in many packaged foods when you Scan an item’s label. Lastly, Voice Scan is also introduced that offers Lens results based on voice commands.

Snapchat has also partnered with Headspace to provide guided mini-meditations

Snapchat also gets the Happening Now feature which will let Snapchatters find what’s going on in the world at any time. For this feature, the social media platform has partnered with The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Reuters, NBC News, ESPN, NowThis, E! News, Daily Mail, BuzzFeed News and more. It shows information across politics, entertainment, sports and more into single Snaps. Happening Now is available to everyone in the US and will be rolling it out in more markets around the world in the next year.

Additionally, Snapchat has also partnered with Headspace to provide guided mini-meditations and tools for helping the Snapchat community check in on their friends. A new in-app reporting feature is also introduced that allows users to alert Snapchat when they worry their friends are at risk for self-harm. “We’re now significantly improving that experience, by immediately showing Snapchatters how they can get connected with emergency services, message a trained counselor through Crisis Text Line, or talk live with someone at the National Suicide Prevention Hotline,” the blog post notes.