Spectacles Community Challenge #8: Winners Announcement
The Spectacles Community Challenge invites all Lens Developers to explore Snap’s latest glasses and showcase their creativity. Check out the winners of the first Spectacles Community Challenge of 2026 and get inspired for your next big project!
Welcome back to the Spectacles Community Challenge! 😍We’re thrilled to kick off 2026 with the first winners announcement, where prizes have officially doubled. 🤑
Starting January 2026, participating Spectacles Developers can win up to:
➡️$14,000 for the New Lens Category
➡️$10,000 for Lens Update Category
➡️$6,000 for 1st place in the Open Source category
Spectacles Developers entered the new year not just with doubled prizes, but also with unmatched creativity, energy, and inspiration, delivering some of the most innovative Lenses we’ve ever seen.
Explore the winners of Spectacles Community Challenge #8 and see what’s possible when imagination meets Snap technology. ⤵️
New Lens Category
⭐ A category that pushes you to experiment with unfamiliar tools, features, and ideas, turning curiosity into innovation to create new, engaging Lenses.
1st Place: Bubbles by Baruch Geuze, Joshua Silva Maniche & Pavlo Tkachenko
Bubbles lets users create tiny AR worlds by generating 3D models with Snap3D GenAI and placing them inside an interactive “bubble.”
Built in just one day at the Eindhoven hackathon, the Lens showcases Snapcloud capabilities like texture compression, efficient multi-mesh Bitmoji export, and server-side pose reconstruction, with all object positions and rotations synced perfectly to the web viewer.
2nd Place: Jigsaw Genie by Harry Banda
Jigsaw Genie turns any description into a brand-new jigsaw puzzle, from a 9-piece robot in a sunflower field to a 64-piece neon city at night. The Lens uses AI to generate a fresh image, wraps it in a realistic virtual puzzle box, and lets users open it and play with hand tracking, grabbing, rotating, and placing pieces naturally. Floating in AR, the puzzle can be enjoyed anywhere, and every playthrough is new, giving endless replayability and fun.
3rd Place: HandymanAI by Arthur Ibanda
HandymanAI helps users tackle engineering and DIY projects in AR. With the new Diagram Panel, users can now visualize steps, tools, and materials directly from the Project Panel, making complex projects easier to plan and follow. The Lens focuses on hands-on guidance in AR, providing a practical, interactive way to approach any build.
Runner up: Coyote PDX by Daniel Pimentel
Coyote PDX helps urban residents learn about living alongside their wild neighbors. Created with the Portland Urban Coyote Project (PUCP), the Lens teaches safe and peaceful coexistence while building appreciation for the species. In 2026, it will be used as an educational tool throughout Portland and can also be applied in other cities with urban coyotes, like Chicago.
Runner up: Birth Planets by Caio Alves
Birth Planets visualizes the geocentric positions of planets for any birth date and time. Using astronomy libraries, it shows each planet’s position, zodiac sign, and motion, while informational cards connect the data to astrological meaning. Users can select predefined dates or enter custom ones with a precision keyboard, and explore the planetary layout on a 3D zodiac table that can be adjusted in AR for position, rotation, and scale.
Lens Update Category
⭐ The Lens Update category invites you to revisit and enhance an already published Lenses, adding new features or refinements to unlock monetization and gain extra visibility.
1st Place: 1st Place: AI Teleport by Stijn Spanhove
AI Teleport lets users step through a portal and transform their surroundings, traveling through the past, future, or entirely imagined worlds in AR. The Lens immerses users in time-bending environments, now updated to explore 2026, with added sharing functionality so creations can be experienced and shared easily.
2nd Place: Hey BookWorm by Inna Horobchuk & Volodymyr Kurbatov
Book Worm lets users identify books by framing them with their hands and then “talk” to the author through AI-powered conversation. Originally an experiment in book recognition, the Lens evolved into an interactive AR experience, with refined AI prompts, visual improvements, and author-specific personas that reflect voice, style, and tone, creating a playful, engaging way to explore literature.
3rd Place: Magic Science Lab by Anastassiya Marchenko
Magic Science Lab transforms any environment into an interactive AR chemistry lab, letting users safely explore chemical reactions. With precise hand tracking, users can now trigger reactions using natural gestures, making experiments intuitive, immersive, and hands-on.
Open Source Category
⭐ This category welcomes open-source Lenses on GitHub, including those using Experimental APIs, giving you the freedom to push boundaries and break new ground without requiring Lens Explorer publication.
1st Place: DGNS TV Tuner by Guillaume Dagens
TV Tuner is an open-source AR Lens for Spectacles that lets users watch authorized live streams and experiment with classic television formats by adding their own M3U8 URLs. Beyond its technical features, the Lens pays tribute to the spirit of classic TV, preserving cultural heritage from iconic 1990s–2000s channels while reimagining it for AR and spatial computing.
2nd Place: Color Spaces by Armand Sumo
Color Spaces lets users explore color spaces, gamuts, and projections in AR on Spectacles. The Lens demonstrates the capabilities of the MeshBuilder API and advanced image processing with shaders, turning complex color concepts into interactive visualizations.
3rd Place: Spidgets by Krunal Gediya, Jeetesh Singh, Akilah Martinez & Aamir Mohammed
Spidgets turns any environment into a playground of interactive AR widgets. Users can place a Weather Widget for live conditions, a Zen Zone for a calming breathing experience, or a Memory Match Game for a quick brain break, all controlled with natural Spectacles gestures. Powered by Supabase integration, the Lens showcases playful, smart XR experiences that bring a room to life.
Congratulations to all the winners, and a huge thank you to everyone who submitted a Lens! 👏Your creativity keeps the competition alive and continues to make the Spectacles experience more immersive with every new project.
Feeling inspired? Keep an eye out for upcoming challenges and opportunities to share your own creations. Whether you’re a seasoned Lens Developer or just starting out, there’s always a new way to boost your skills and bring your ideas to life.
P.S. We can’t wait to see your next creations—submit your Spectacles Lenses by January 31 for the Spectacles Community Challenge #9!
