Voting is one of the most important forms of self-expression we have in America. So today, on National Voter Registration Day, we’re offering a new way for our community to register to vote quickly and easily — right in Snapchat with TurboVote!

If you’re 18-years-old or over and in the US, you’ll find a link to register on your User Profile page starting today. You’ll also see a video message from ‘Team Snapchat’, and fun new creative tools like nationwide Filters you can use to encourage your friends to register. Plus, don’t forget to check out Discover for Stories about the midterm elections and voter registration efforts happening across our communities!

Happy Voting!

Team Snap

Beginning this week, we're testing a new way to search for products on Amazon right from the Snapchat camera. We'll be rolling it out slowly, but we wanted to announce it to everyone at the same time.

It's super easy to use. Simply point your Snapchat camera at a physical product or barcode, and press and hold on the camera screen to get started.

When the item or barcode is recognized, an Amazon card will appear on-screen, surfacing a link for that product or similar ones available on Amazon. Tap your selection to visit the Amazon App (if you have it installed on your phone) or Amazon.com, where you can complete your purchase or keep browsing.

Snapchat has always been the fastest way to communicate, and now it's the fastest way to shop!

Happy Snapping!

Team Snap

Today we’re introducing two new styles of Spectacles: Nico and Veronica. Both designs come in black-on-black with polarized lenses, effortlessly combining form and function to create our most fashionable hands-free camera.

Nico and Veronica capture up to 70 videos or hundreds of photos on a single charge — then transfer them to your phone, wirelessly. They’re also water resistant, so you can take them with you almost anywhere!

Later this fall, we’ll also be rolling out a new Snapchat feature that automatically curates your Spectacles Snaps into a single Highlight Story. Highlight Stories will make it faster and easier to find your favorite moments and share them with friends after a full day of Snapping.

Nico and Veronica are now available on Spectacles.com in select countries worldwide.

Team Snap

Starting today, there’s an easier way to discover and unlock thousands of Lenses built by Snapchatters around the world!

To begin browsing in Lens Explorer, just tap the new icon that appears when the Lens Carousel is active. Tap a Lens tile to unlock a Lens and be taken directly to the Snap Camera, or browse Lenses in featured Stories. Unlock a Lens by swiping up on Snaps in these Stories.

Since we launched Lens Studio in late 2017, creators have submitted over 100,000 unique Lenses which have been viewed by Snapchatters over 2.5 billion times. Now, with the introduction of Lens Explorer, Community Lenses will be discoverable alongside the Lens Carousel, making them easier to find and play with.

Lens Explorer will be available on iOS at launch.

Want to create your own Lens? Visit Lens Studio!

Team Snap

Today we’re introducing Snap Kit to help developers build products powered by some of the best parts of Snapchat. Snap Kit brings the experiences you love on Snapchat into some of your favorite apps, without compromising your private account data.

Creative Kit helps developers integrate their own stickers, Filters, links, and other highlights — like high scores and workout stats — right into the Snapchat camera, so you can add your own touch and share it with friends.

Login Kit lets you unlock new features on Snapchat and other apps — or use your Snapchat account as a quick, secondary way to log in.

Bitmoji Kit lets your conversations come alive with Bitmoji stickers when messaging on other apps.

Story Kit lets developers filter and embed publicly shared Snapchat Stories into their own apps and services.

If you’re a developer and interested in trying Snap Kit, you can learn more about it here.

We can’t wait to see what you and your community will create with Snap Kit!

Team Snap

Today, we’re introducing Yellow, a launchpad for creative minds and entrepreneurs who are looking to build the next generation of great media companies.

In an ecosystem that's rapidly evolving, we're excited about the future of storytelling and the creators who will push the artistic boundaries of what's possible with mobile content.

With Yellow, we will help you shorten the time it takes to turn your brilliant idea into reality. We’ll choose a small group of individuals and teams from around the world to join our inaugural three-month program. They’ll receive the tools needed to grow a business from the ground up, through funding, mentorship, introductions to industry veterans, workspace right here in Venice, California, and the opportunity for distribution on our platform.

Whether your thing is augmented reality, interactive storytelling, new kinds of narratives, or something we haven’t even thought of yet, we can’t wait to hear from you. Learn more and apply at yellowla.com.

Team Snap

Protecting privacy is a very important part of accomplishing our mission: empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. For us, that’s about the freedom to be you — regardless of who you are, who you’ve been, or who you’re going to be.

This is why we introduced the idea of ephemeral media with Snapchat — to set the assumption, just like in real life, that you’re not always on the record. This enables privacy and freedom of expression. When you meet someone new, you shouldn’t have to worry about them sifting through and analyzing a personal record of the past five years of your life.

Privacy and your right to choose what information you share is at the heart of everything we do. And that’s why it came naturally for Snap to embrace the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): data minimization, short retention periods, anonymization, and security.

For example, before we even begin building a new Snapchat feature, a dedicated team of privacy lawyers and engineers work closely with our designers to outline the following:

• How long we retain data
• How Snapchatters can view, access, and exercise rights to their data
• How to minimize the data collected
• How to ensure the data collected isn’t used for anything other than what it’s intended for

When we do collect information, we try to be thoughtful about the kind of data we use. For example, we don’t collect information about your ethnicity, sexuality, or political allegiance and we don’t share personally-identifiable information about you with advertisers or third parties.

Some of the information we will collect includes things like where you open Snapchat and what you watch in Discover. This helps us provide you with location-specific experiences, as well as assign you to “Lifestyle Categories” or “Content Interest Tags.” These interest categories help us and our advertisers provide you content that’s personalized for you.

Most importantly, we want you to have control over the information you provide us. You have full control over interest categories you’ve been placed in — all of which you can choose to opt out of. If you don’t want us to use your location data, you can turn off your location permissions. Lastly, you’re free to opt out of all ads targeting based on first and third-party audience data and activity outside of our services. You can find all of these permissions in Snapchat settings.

When it comes to fully understanding how your data is being used, we know that one blog post is never going to cover it. So, we’ve recently updated our Privacy Center to give you a comprehensive explanation, in language that we hope is simple and easy to understand. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at this link here.

Happy Snapping!

Team Snap

We've made your favorite hands-free camera even better!

Spectacles are now more comfortable to wear with a smaller profile, and they're water resistant — so you can bring them to the beach, or your next pool party! Tap the button to record video with new and improved audio, and now, you can press and hold to take a photo! Snaps you capture will transfer to Snapchat up to four times faster, and always in HD.

We want Spectacles to be the simplest and easiest way to make memories from your point of view, and we appreciate all of your thoughtful feedback — many of these improvements were inspired by you!

We hope you love the new Spectacles!

Team Snap

Today, we’re introducing Snappables — new Lenses for playing augmented reality games with your friends! You can control Snappables using touch, motion, and even facial expressions.

Snappables live right where Lenses do. Just choose one and get your game face on! Then, invite your friends to play along too. Some Snappables let you challenge friends to beat your high score, while others can invite them to multiplayer games!

Fight aliens, start a rock band, play basketball, and more — together with your friends, no matter where you are. New Snappables will be released every week!

Happy Snapping!

Team Snap

We designed Chat to feel less like texting and more like hanging out. That’s why when a friend opens Chat, their Bitmoji pops up to say “I’m here!” — and why your Chat conversations aren’t saved forever, by default.

Today, we’re making Chat even more fun. Now you can video chat with up to 16 of your friends at one time. Just tap the video camera icon in a Group Chat to get your friends together! Friends in the Group Chat will receive a notification inviting them to join.

How you express yourself is up to you. You can use Lenses, join only with your voice, or simply send messages that others can read while they talk. Every conversation is unique!

Group Video Chat will begin rolling out to Snapchatters globally this week.

Happy Chatting!

Team Snap