Snapchat users will now get a special treat on their birthday in the form of a special lens called Birthday Party.
Simply add your birthday to the app in order to receive the special lens on your big day. It makes your snaps fitting for a celebration by adding balloons and confetti.
New Snapchat lens will make your birthday extra special
Snapchat calls its photo and video effects “lenses,” which refers to a particular overlay that is added to your snaps. Take a snap as usual and then send it to your friends or add it to your story with the special festive lens.
The app will also notify you if one of your contacts has a birthday by placing a cake next to their name on your buddy list. Activate the lens and take snaps before sending it to your birthday friend. You can also add a time filter so that the date shows on screen.
The birthday lens was released just a day after Snapchat launched a series of on-demand geofilters. The latter allows users to make filters for any event before restricting their use to a particular geographical area. For example you can create a special lens for your sister’s wedding, but make sure that it can only be used by people in your town.
Lens policy undergoes changes due to evolving business model
On-demand filters will cost $5 and up depending on your exact requirements. The move follows the closing down of the Snapchat Lens Store in January, which previously charged users $0.99 per lens.
The app recently decided to focus on driving ad revenue and started offering 10 free lenses every day. However brands can sponsor lenses for a reported fee of $750,000. Companies such as Fox have already made their own lenses, including a promotional Halloween lens for the Peanuts movie.
Birthday Party is not a sponsored lens, and will be free to use. Elsewhere on social media, Facebook recently released its own Birthday Cam in the social network’s iOS app, which allows users to record and post a 15 second video to their friends
Snapchat will make the Birthday Party lens available from Tuesday on both the iOS and Android apps.
