Snapchat

Snapchat is Snap Inc.’s visual messaging app for staying connected with friends and family. Alongside camera-based communication, Spotlight, Snap Map and augmented reality give people ways to discover content, share their surroundings and create together. AI supports content recommendations and creative tools, while advertisers use Smart Campaign Solutions to automate and optimize campaigns. Paid offerings include Snapchat+, Memories Storage and Lens+, extending the business beyond advertising.

Founded in 2011 by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown, Snapchat is now operated by Snap under Spiegel as co-founder and CEO. Its engineering work extends beyond the app: Snap and Northeastern University researchers have investigated diffusion transformers for mobile video generation, evaluating how compressed video representations affect processing speed and output quality.

Snap reported 971 million monthly active users in Q2 2026. In July 2026, it said its subscription business had surpassed 25 million subscribers globally since Snapchat+ launched in 2022. Beyond the phone, Snap established Specs Inc. as a wholly owned subsidiary in 2026 for augmented-reality glasses. Specs use see-through lenses to place digital objects in the surrounding world, with hand and voice controls; their commercial launch remained planned for fall 2026.