Snapchat Releases Animate It: Open-Prompt AI Video Generation for Lens+ Subscribers

Image Credit: Souvik Banerjee | Splash

Snap has released Animate It, a Snapchat Lens that turns a text prompt into a short animated video directly inside the Snapchat Camera. Snap announced Animate It on 22 December 2025, describing it as its first open prompt video generation Lens, powered by Snap’s internally developed AI video generation model.

What Is Animate It

Animate It sits inside Snapchat’s Lens system and is designed to generate a personalised animated clip from “any prompt”, aimed at quick creation and sharing rather than a longer edit workflow. Snap says the output is ready to share on Snapchat “or beyond”.

Who Can Use It

Snap says Animate It is available to Lens+ subscribers. Snapchat Support describes Lens+ as a plan that includes Snapchat+ features plus exclusive GenAI powered Lenses, and says people can subscribe to Lens+ Monthly or access Lens+ as part of Snapchat+ Platinum.

How It Works Inside The App

Snap’s published steps are:

• Search for Animate It from the Camera

• Select the Lens, then tap the caption to enter your own idea or choose a suggested prompt

• Watch it generate a personalised animated clip in a few seconds

Snap’s announcement does not publish technical specifics such as the model name, output resolution, clip length, or any labelling or watermarking approach for generated clips.

Snap’s Subscription Strategy for AI Creation

Animate It also fits Snap’s broader approach in 2025: placing advanced creation tools inside familiar Lenses while using paid tiers to distribute them.

When Snap introduced Lens+ in June 2025, it framed it as a new level to Snapchat+ that provides access to hundreds of Lenses and AR experiences, including “exclusive new AI video Lenses”, with more added regularly.

Support documentation reinforces that Lens+ is positioned around access to exclusive GenAI powered Lenses.

How It Compares with Similar Mobile Features

• TikTok AI Alive (photo to video): TikTok’s AI Alive turns a single photo into a short video in TikTok Stories, using a prompt guided workflow. TikTok also publishes more detail about safeguards and transparency than Snap does in the Animate It post, including moderation checks that review the uploaded photo, the prompt, and the generated video, plus an AI generated label and C2PA metadata embedded in AI Alive stories.

• Snap’s earlier Video Gen AI Lenses (themed lenses): Snap’s March 2025 release is closer to a guided effect model: users choose a themed Lens and capture a Snap, while the generated video completes and saves automatically to Memories. TechCrunch described those as Snap’s first ever video generative AI Lenses, powered by an in house generative video model, available on Snapchat Platinum.

Animate It shifts Snap’s AI video generation from preset themes to open prompt, which usually increases creative freedom and also raises expectations around clarity for viewers about what is generated.

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