Even Snapchat Has an AI Image Generator Now

Snapchat’s first foray into AI wasn’t exactly a success. It started with “My AI,” an AI chatbot that lives at the top of your Snapchat chats, back in April, and people weren’t happy. For one, you couldn’t get rid of it, so you had to deal with the chatbot in your app whether you were interested in it or not. Plus, there was a concern that the bot was lying about having access to your location. That wasn’t exactly the case, but the damage was done.

Eight months later, and My AI lives on. Not only that, Snapchat is doubling down on its AI efforts. The company announced on Tuesday that it would be rolling out a dedicated AI image generator for Snapchat+ subscribers. If you’ve used one of these before, such as Meta’s recently released generator, you know the drill: When you tap the new AI button on Snapchat, you can prompt the bot to generate whatever image comes to mind. Give it a simple prompt, or something complex, and the bot will try its best to replicate it. You can send these AI images like regular snaps, too: Your friends might open your snap assuming to see your face, only to be met by an AI abomination. Snapchat+ users previously had the option to generate AI images for their My AI chat wallpaper, but this is a full-fledge image generator.

But it isn’t just image generation that’s getting an AI boost in Snapchat+. When you take a snap, you’ll now see a new “Extend” option. Use this button when you think you’ve taken a photo too close to your subject, and Snapchat will use AI to “zoom” out, filling in the space with generative images. Dreams, Snapchat’s AI selfie feature, is now collaborative. You can add your friends to your AI selfies, and you’ll receive an eight-pack for free once a month.

These features are all exclusive to Snapchat+, Snap’s paid tier. You can subscribe for U.S$3.99 per month, or U,S$29.99 per year. But will these features be enough to convince you to actually pay for Snapchat? Personally, I’m about this close to deleting the app because their notifications are so spammy lately; thank goodness for notification settings.