Snapchat launches India’s first ‘Lensathon’ in partnership with Skillenza

Juhi Bhatnagar, Strategy and Business Development Lead, India at Snapchat

National, May 23rd 2020 (TGN): Snapchat is partnering with Skillenza to bring the first ever Lensathon to India - an online hackathon open to national participation** to create augmented reality experiences using Lens Studio. The Lensathon ends on Saturday 6th June 2020. 

Lens Studio is a free desktop app launched by Snapchat in 2017, that provides the tools and templates needed to build digital skills, create Lenses and share them on Snapchat. Since its launch, over 900,000 Lenses have been made by the community all over the world. The Lensathon is an opportunity to add to this growth and breadth of experiences available on Snapchat. 

Participants can build multiple lenses with the limitation that the last 5 lenses submitted will be evaluated against the criteria. All the Lensathon participants have the opportunity to attend webinars to learn Lens creation from the experts from the Lens team at Snapchat. The most creative and original Lenses will stand a chance to join the Official Lens Creator program, alongside winning other cash prizes, swag and Snap Spectacles.

“We’re thrilled to host our first Lensathon with Skillenza this summer. Snapchat is all about self expression and we truly believe that everyone can be creative if they have access to the right tools. In the past year, we’ve worked closely with high schools and colleges across India, teaching digital skills to students through Lens Studio workshops. The Lensathon is another step in that direction, and we’re excited to see all the incredible AR experiences people will create for our growing community here in India,” said Juhi Bhatnagar, Strategy and Business Development Lead, India at Snapchat

"We are very excited to partner with Snapchat India for Lensathon. This hackathon is India’s first Augmented Reality lens creation competition and a unique opportunity for the AR developer community in the country to showcase their skills. In fact, the lens creation process is so simple and intuitive that participants with limited or no knowledge of Augmented Reality are able to create exceptional lenses in no time. We are confident that this competition will spark creativity in a lot of developers and build a larger community of AR creators in India. With Snapchat, we are elated to be building one of the largest AR communities in the country in the days to come,” said Subhendu Panigrahi, Co-Founder & CEO, Skillenza

To register to take part, download Lens Studio and get more information on the judging criteria and prizes, follow the link here:  https://skillenza.com/challenge/snap-lensathon   

Interesting facts:

• Since the launch of Lens Studio in 2017, Snap has seen over 900,000 lenses created by the global community 
• Over 75% of Snap’s daily active users engage with augmented reality every day on average.
• On average, Lenses made by the community via Lens Studio make up over 30% of the total Snaps sent every day with a Lens.
• Top-performing Community Lenses reach billions of views.
• Snap now has 5 OLCs in India and over 100 globally

Also, take a look here at some of the exciting Lenses built until today by our Official Lens Creators

**Read Terms & Conditions for participating in the Lensathon here.