Snapchat AI Clips Turn Photos Into 5-Second Videos
▼ Summary
– Snapchat launched AI Clips, a new Lens format that uses AI to turn a single photo into a five-second video.
– The feature is a closed-prompt system where creators design the Lens and users generate videos from their own photos.
– AI Clips are available to users subscribed to Lens+, which costs $8.99 per month for exclusive AR content.
– Creators in the Lens+ Payouts program can monetize the AI Clips they build and publish directly from Lens Studio.
– This launch follows YouTube’s similar “Reimagine” feature, highlighting a competitive trend in user-generated AI video.
Snapchat has introduced a new feature that allows creators to build AI-powered video Lenses directly within its Lens Studio platform. This tool, called AI Clips, transforms a single user-provided photo into a short, five-second video. The launch represents a significant expansion of the platform’s generative AI capabilities, moving beyond static filters into dynamic video creation.
The system operates as a closed-prompt experience. Instead of users typing in text commands, Lens creators design the specific video transformation in advance. A user then simply selects the Lens and provides their photo to generate the clip. For instance, a creator could build a Lens that turns a portrait into a video of someone surfing a wave or walking a fashion runway. Snapchat emphasizes that the format is designed for accessibility, enabling both new and experienced developers to publish a functional Lens in just minutes without needing separate software.
Access to generating these AI Clips is currently gated behind a Lens+ subscription, which costs $8.99 per month. This tier provides exclusive Lenses and augmented reality experiences on top of the standard Snapchat+ benefits. In a blog post, the company highlighted the unique combination of closed-prompt AI video generation with direct photo input and built-in distribution. Creators enrolled in Snapchat’s Lens+ Payouts monetization program can also earn revenue from the AI Clips they build and publish.
This move aligns with a broader industry trend of personalizing short-form video content. Notably, YouTube recently began rolling out a comparable feature called “Reimagine” for YouTube Shorts, which lets users create an eight-second clip from a single frame and their own photo. Snapchat’s announcement coincided with the revelation that users created nearly two trillion Snaps in 2025, averaging a staggering 63,000 Snaps per second, underscoring the massive scale of content creation on its platform.
(Source: TechCrunch)
