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Version: 4.55.1

Submission Guidelines

Lens Studio Submission Guidelines

Lens Studio empowers our community to create expressive, immersive AR experiences, and then distribute their creations to Snapchatters all over the world. Lenses empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.

All Lenses submitted are subject to Snap’s Terms of Service, Community Guidelines and the Lens Studio Terms, and must follow all Snap policies governing the use of our products or services. Please also review our Privacy Policy to learn how we handle information when you use the Services. You agree that we can collect, use, and share your information as described in that policy and any updates to that policy. We may update our terms, policies, and guidelines from time to time, so please review them regularly.

If you would like to run AR ad campaigns on Snapchat, please visit our Business Center and this page for Sponsored Lenses.

Tips for Lens Creators

Snapchatters can discover your Lenses through the Lens Carousel, Lens Explorer, other areas of the Snapchat app, and Camera Kit.

Kind

  • Be inclusive! Your Lens should be functional for all Snapchatters, regardless of skin tone, face or body shape or size, language, ability, race, color, caste, ethnicity, national origin, political affiliation, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, immigration status, socioeconomic status, age, weight or pregnancy status. In short: be respectful and appropriate for our global, 13+ community.

Smart

  • Be particularly thoughtful about privacy and safety; avoid creating Lenses that have the potential to cause oversharing of your own or someone else’s sensitive information, such as a home address or personal phone number.

Creative

  • Be visually compelling in a way that makes use of the camera. Make something that Snapchatters will want to experience and share with their friends.
  • Experiment! We are constantly adding new capabilities to Lens Studio to expand creative possibilities.

Lens Content Requirements

While we encourage you to push the boundaries of creativity with the Lenses you create, we want to offer clear guidance about what our Community Guidelines prohibit in all content, including Lenses or Lens attachments. Additionally, we want to provide transparency around targeted distribution, which means Lenses are promoted to the most relevant Snapchatters, considering factors such as age and interests.

Sexually explicit content

Prohibited

Targeted Distribution

  • Nudity and any depictions of, or references to, sex acts or genitalia.
  • Sexually suggestive content, including but not limited to emphasis on frequently-sexualized body parts and sexual innuendo.
  • Lenses featuring individuals who are primarily known for their work in adult entertainment.

Harassment

Prohibited

Targeted Distribution

  • Bullying a real person, revealing someone else's personal information, a Lens whose primary purpose is to annoy or attack others, or using profanity to insult someone.
  • Lenses that auto-sort friends to depict the strength of their friendship on Snapchat.
  • Lenses that can lead to social comparison or describe and depict friends in negative ways.
  • Profane language and gestures, including profanity in music lyrics.
  • Face swap Lenses that include unrealistic depictions of real people.

Threats

Prohibited

  • Any implied harm to a person, group of people, place or property, including intimidating language or imagery.

Violence

Prohibited

Targeted Distribution

  • Realistic, disturbing harm to people or animals (Note: some scary or creepy imagery is allowed, but not if it is so realistic or gory that it would cause distress).
  • Non-graphic, yet realistic depictions of injuries (substantial bruising, lacerations, etc.) that would not be disturbing to adult audiences.

Suicide or Self-harm promotion

Prohibited

  • Glorification or encouragement of suicide or any kind of self-harm, including eating disorders.

Dangerous activity promotion

Prohibited

  • Encouragement of real-life risky behaviors, such as challenges that could result in property damage, injury or death.

Realistic weapons

Prohibited

Targeted Distribution

  • Depicting modern, real-life firearms, weaponized explosives, or combat knives (Note: we allow fictional, cartoonish or historical weapons, but not if the Lens appears to glorify real-life violence).
  • Fictional, cartoonish or historical weapons, if the Lens does not appear to glorify real-life violence.

False or Deceptive Information

Prohibited

  • Spammy, low-quality or manipulative marketing tactics, such as attempts to trick users into visiting a site or sharing personal information.
  • Scammy, fraudulent products or services.
  • Denying the reality of tragic events.
  • Unsubstantiated medical claims.
  • Undermining the integrity of civic processes.

Illegal activity

Prohibited

  • Encouraging crime, including cybercrime or hacking, or the use or sale of illegal drugs, contraband, counterfeit goods, or illegal weapons.

Regulated industry promotion

Prohibited

Targeted Distribution

  • Promotion of products or services that are legally restricted, such as: tobacco or nicotine products, alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals, weapons (Note: some regulated industries may be allowed as Sponsored Lenses, if compliant with our Ad Policy)
  • Responsible alcohol consumption by adults.
  • Gambling imagery that does not promote gambling operations.
  • Promotion of financial instruments.

Violent group promotion

Prohibited

  • Terrorists, violent extremists, organized crime, gangs, hate groups.

Hate

Prohibited

  • Content that demeans, defames, or promotes discrimination or violence on the basis of any of the identities listed in our Community Guidelines.
    • Examples: slurs, stereotypes, hate symbols, the promotion of hateful conspiracy theories, the glorification of atrocities or historical hatemongers.
  • Mimicry of real-life medical conditions, disabilities, stigmatized ailments, or specifically imitating the effects of an eating disorder.
  • Insensitivity towards protected classes, including mocking hairstyles, accessories, or tattoos of a specific culture, religion, national origin, race or ethnicity.

Creative Quality

Prohibited

Targeted Distribution

  • Growth hacks, such as “Follow for more,” “Share with 10 Friends,” etc.
  • QR codes.
  • Fictional, cartoonish or historical weapons, if the Lens does not appear to glorify real-life violence.

ChatGPT Integration

Lenses that utilize the ChatGPT API integration must not:

  • Facilitate open questions or back-and-forth conversations with ChatGPT.
  • Use an additional remote API.
  • Solicit user's responses to sensitive topics.

Intellectual Property Rights

  • You must obtain all necessary rights and permissions for the content you submit as part of a Lens. This includes obtaining all necessary performance rights for music included in Lenses, and paying all applicable royalties for the music.
  • Rightsholders and their agents can report alleged intellectual property infringement found in Lenses to Snap. Snap takes all complaints regarding intellectual property infringement seriously and will investigate them. Takedowns are processed at Snap’s discretion. We make no guarantees as to the outcome of our investigations or the legitimacy of the complaints we receive. To report copyright infringement on Snapchat, follow the instructions at this link.
  • Please keep in mind that in making your Lens available to Snapchatters, Snap may display your name, business name (if applicable), Lens name, Snapchat account username or display name, city, state, and country, as submitted by you or tied to your Snapchat account.
  • Do not include content that suggests any partnership with or endorsement by Snap, or imitates Snap’s trademarks or products. Prohibited references include (but are not limited to) “Snap,” “Snapchat,” “Spectacles,” “Bitmoji,” the Ghost Logo, the Spectacles Logo, and the Snapchat user interface.

Technical Requirements

  • Frame Rate: For iPhone 6 and higher, the Lens should run at 27 FPS or higher. For Android Galaxy S6 and higher, the Lens should run at 15 FPS or higher.
  • Memory: In Snapchat, the Lens should consume a maximum of 150 MB RAM memory.
  • Exported Lens Size: Once exported, the zipped Lens should be no more than 8 MB. ML models are counted separately, with a limit of 10mb.
  • Texture Size: No texture should exceed 2048 x 2048 resolution. No mesh should exceed 100,000 triangles, or 60,000 triangles for meshes with joints/skinning for best performance.
  • Lens icon and preview media: We encourage original imagery.

For additional resources please visit the Lens Studio Site.

Support

To report a Lens that you think may violate our Community Guidelines, please see our Support Site.

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