Social media apps rely on a few things to remain popular, or relevant; new, fresh content for users to consume, and users constantly returning and interacting with the app. Interactive features are a pretty great way to get users to stick around which is why Snapchat has added lens challenges. Lens challenges are basically recording a specific act, as defined by the lens challenge, and then asking others to do the same. Here’s how you can use lens challenges on Snapchat.
This feature is rolling out slowly to users. Make sure the Snapchat app on your phone is up to date. If you don’t see it just yet, check out pet lenses instead.
Open Snapchat and tap anywhere on the camera view finder to load available lenses. Once the lenses start to load, tap the smiley face button to access the lens gallery.
At the top of the gallery you will see all available challenges. Tap the lens challenge that you want to try and then follow the on-screen instructions to do the challenge yourself. Once you’ve followed through on the challenge, you will be able to send it to a specific friend, add it to your story, or add it to the challenge for everyone to see.
At present, there are only four challenges that you can try. The lens challenges on Snapchat are supposed to be created by users. If you’re looking to create a lens challenge of your own, you’re going to need to use Lens Studio.
Lens Studio is a desktop app that’s available for both macOS and Windows 10. It requires a fairly decent GPU and at least 4GB RAM but your processor can be as old as a core i3. What Snapchat is basically doing is getting users to create content and make it go viral. If you create an easy but interesting lens challenge that most people can do, it will go viral. It’s that simple and you can count on brands trying their hand at it.
Social media apps like Snapchat add interactive content for users because if you really take a look at social media there isn’t much to do there. With Facebook or Twitter you might go through your feed but that too runs dry eventually. With Snapchat, you get fewer updates unless it’s someone’s job to just post on the app. The lens challenge or any other interactive features not only gives users something to ‘watch’ but also a simple way to participate.
