Snapchat is launching a fresh and improved AR Try-On Lens with a collaboration with OPI on a new experience of trying out nail polish shades within the app.
The new Try-On will enable you to try out the new OPI nail polish shades directly in the Snapchat camera through the 'Nails Segmentation', which is a new feature of Snapchat's AR toolset.

Of course, Snapchat has already experimented with nail polish wear. However, the new version of this feature is more responsive, more realistic, and offers new ways to show nail products via AR in the app-all thanks to improved systematic processes.

From Snapchat:

New L'Oréal nail polish try-on tech with Snapchat AR will apply polish and other 2D effects directly to a Snapchatter's fingernail. With Nails Segmentation, brands can accurately add textures and designs or track 2D color to an individual user's nail, for seamless consumer try-on.

It may be a gateway to a new level of advertising and services, integrated with Snapchat's existing Try On features to open doors for further interaction within the discovery process.

This is where Snapchat is increasingly leaning. While VR will be the future, AR will prove to be the critical bridge between online and IRL experiences. Add the steady rise of eCommerce and it becomes clear that AR will be just as transformative if not more so than the eventual metaverse shift.

In this respect, the platform focused on the development of its tools for augmented reality to stay ahead of the game. A key component of this is Snapchat's AR Enterprise Services (ARES) platform, which enables other companies to integrate Snapchat's AR technology into their apps, websites, or physical locations.
Improvements in Snapchat's AR offerings will keep this under the company's belt, even as it can't launch its own take on AR-enabled glasses – which is still in the works, though later forays into cost-cutting may have adversely affected Snapchat's pursuit of creating an AR-enabled version of its Spectacles hardware.

But outside of the firm, no one is actually sure how Snap stands in all that - but even if it is not a direct provider of AR tools, then it can still be a central enabler as part of that shift.

Snapchat has for a long time been an AR leader and clearly does not look like it is going to let that title slip anytime soon, with richer eCommerce AR tools in the form of this set to drive ongoing opportunities for the company.