Snapchat has played around with augmented reality for years, letting you try on virtual dog ears or sport a different hair color. In February 2023, the company even jumped into the AI game by introducing the My AI chatbot. Though this first AI feature received mixed reviews, Snapchat is moving forward with a new AI-powered feature called Dreams.
When this new feature fully rolls out to the public, the Snapchat app can use your selfies to create multiple fun, fantastical images that put you in different eras or worlds. If you want to see what you’d look like as a superhero, a mermaid, a cowboy, or someone from the Renaissance, here’s how to use Snapchat’s Dreams feature.
How to use the Snapchat Dreams feature
Just like the popular Lensa app and other AI image generators, the Snapchat Dreams feature uses your original selfie as inspiration and produces multiple variations of that image. The app has a few series of eight-photo packs to choose from, with themes like back-to-school, doppelgangers, or fantasy. Your first set of eight photos is free, but according to The Verge, all additional Dream photo packs will cost $1 as an in-app purchase.
The feature will first be available in Australia and New Zealand, and then it’ll roll out globally to all Snapchat users over the next few weeks. At first, the feature will only let you use your own face to generate AI selfies. Eventually, Snapchat plans to allow Dreams to include you and any friends who have also opted into the feature.
It could be a while before all Snapchat users have access to Dreams, but here’s how to check if the feature is in your Snapchat app yet. To start, the Snapchat app should be downloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and updated.
- With the Snapchat app launched, swipe up on the screen to access your in-app Memories.
- Below the search bar, select the tab labeled Dreams. In early-access screenshots from The Verge, the Dreams tab pops up between Camera Roll and Screenshots.
- Upload a selfie and agree to the Dreams terms of service.
- Select your preferred eight-photo pack, and wait about 30 minutes for your AI-generated selfies to be ready! This 30-minute period could decrease as the Dreams feature becomes more intelligent.
For Snapchat’s My AI chatbot, the company went with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but Dreams is based on open-source technology. The My AI chatbot has become somewhat divisive, with many Snapchat users wanting to enable it and plenty of others wanting to disable it. To remove the My AI chatbot, you have to be a paying Snapchat+ subscriber, whereas it seems like Dreams will only cost you when creating photo packs.
Soon enough, the AI-powered Dreams feature will be rolled out to everyone using Snapchat, and we'll be seeing all kinds of fun selfies shared among friends and public Snapchat users.
