Snapchat brings its camera to the desktop with the new Snap Camera app

For the first time, Snapchat brings its camera outside of its mobile application.

The company has just released a dedicated desktop application, called Snap Camera, which allows users to use its augmented reality selfie goals, signature, in other desktop applications. Snap is also working with Twitch so broadcasters can use Snapchat goals during the broadcast.

Snap Camera, now available for Windows and Mac, allows you to access the Snapchat goal library, including those made by other users via Snapchat's Lens Studio software.

Once Snap Camera is installed, you can select it as the camera output for other applications, such as Skype or Google Hangouts, so you can use the lenses of these apps. Snap also partnered with Twitch on a dedicated Twitch extension to allow game broadcasters to use AR effects as they are broadcast. Streamers will also be able to offer lenses to fans who subscribe to their channels.

Eitan Pilpski, vice president of Snap's camera platform, said the company was motivated by the success of its Lens Studio product, which has enabled more than 250,000 user-generated goals since the end of the year. Last year.

"We saw a change in the community: anyone who wanted to be creative wanted to create conflict resolution applications, but did not have the skills to create a stand-alone application," Pilpski said. "What Snap Camera is saying is that at Snapchat we wanted to be sure to lead the industry and the creative sector by providing them with the opportunity to be in AR."

Snap Camera is also an opportunity for Snapchat, which loses users in its mobile application, to extend its reach without relying on its application. Snap Camera does not require a Snapchat account to be used. And, by placing the application in front of Twitch's streamers and other personalities, Snapchat's augmented reality features will be able to reach a much wider audience than is possible within the confines of Snapchat.

This is the latest in a series of updates made by the company to extend its content beyond its application over the past year. The company has also publicly open "Our Stories" so that media companies can publish them on their sites and that users can share stories outside of the app.

Snap is now looking to bring another of its most important features – its popular augmented reality effects – to people who may not be habitual users of the Snapchat app.