Snapchat’s New Feature ‘Snap Minis’ Will Be the Next Hot Thing in the Market

Snap introduced an array of new products and partnerships for Snapchat including original shows, Minis, new lenses, new navigation bars, and games at the 2020 Snap Partner Summit.

The highlight of the event was Minis – a suite of miniature apps developed by third parties that will run inside Snapchat. This will be integrated into the Snapchat chat window that would allow users to buy movie tickets, shop with friends or meditate.

In an interview with The Verge, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said,

“Let’s say you’re getting ready with your friends, or your school dance is two weeks from now — you can actually shop together with your friends, which I think could be a really fun experience.”

What Snap Announced:

-Minis are web-based apps built on HTML-5 for Android and iOS.

-Minis will start rolling out next month on Snapchat with the first seven minis.

-A mini-app by Coachella to coordinate and plan a festival line up with the friends.

-A mini version of Headspace to meditate and send encouraging messages to friends.

-A mini-app by Tembo to create flashcards for studying,

-A mini-app by Atom to buy movie tickets, pick seats, and choose timings.

Why They Matter:

– The inclusion of mini-apps will increase Snapchat’s functionality and potentially making it a one-stop app like WeChat for GenZ.

– The main purpose behind creating minis is creating eCommerce avenues as its main competitor WhatsApp has already ventured into digital payments and shopping.

– The company’s growth is stable in the messaging space but is not big enough to compete with the likes of Facebook and Google for ad revenues in the long term.

– As a result, it plans to build an ecosystem that revolves around its camera technology to unlock new revenue generation options.

What’s New For Brands:

– Brands especially looking to target the younger audience should consider developing a Snap Mini to provide services and ensure easy accessibility to Snapchat users.

– It is easy to maintain a mini-app than a full-size app as brands can leverage the Snapchat’s user base to gain traction.

By The Numbers:

– These miniatures applications are compared to WeChat’s mini-programs that generated $113 billion for Tencent last year, according to The Verge.

– Snap execs revealed that it reached over 229 million daily active users on average in the first quarter of this year, with over 100 million in the U.S. alone. (That’s larger than TikTok or Twitter’s U.S. footprint.)

And, there’s lots more from the 2020 Snap Partner Summit:

1. Camera Kit: It allows developers to bring Snapchat’s AR capabilities and engagement into their own apps that enable apps like Squad to create a co-viewing experience while video chatting with friends.

2. Dynamic Lenses: It allows developers to bring real-time information from their app into Snapchat lenses.

3. Bitmoji For Games: A cross-platform avatar for gaming on mobile, PC, or console. This means it is easier for a user to maintain a uniform gaming identity online by using one avatar across all games.

4. Snap Games: An interactive way for friends to play the game on mobile which includes “Bitmoji Party.”

5. Lens Studio: A free and new desktop feature that allows developers to bring their machine learning models to power lenses. For the first  SnapML creations, the company partnered with Prisma, Wannaby, and others.

6. Local Lenses: A new feature that allows users to create  3D worlds on top of their building and or decorate nearby buildings with colorful paints and have a new AR experience.

7. Scans: Snap expanded its scan platform and announced new partners for plants, dogs, and nutrition information. Plant Snap will help the user identify 90% of all known plants and trees. Dog Scanner to identify 400 breeds, Yuka will launch a nutrition scanner to provide ratings on the quality of ingredients in the packaged foods and Louis Vuitton will help users scan the monogram to be transported into the inspiration behind their latest collection.

8. Voice Scan: It allows users to issue voice commands to find lenses.