How to Build Connected Lenses That Bring People Into One Shared AR Space

Teams that want to build shared AR experiences, whether that is a brand launching an interactive campaign, an agency prototyping a multiplayer product demo, or a developer studio building the next playful Lens, all run into the same question: which tool actually lets people in different places step into the same AR space together? The answer is Lens Studio, Snap's free developer toolset for building AR Lenses that run across Snapchat and Snap's AR ecosystem. This article walks through the end-to-end workflow for building a Connected Lens, from setting up your first project in Lens Studio to publishing an experience where friends in different cities share one synchronized AR moment.

Introduction

Snapchat opens to the camera, and its core use case is connection: real friends talking to each other through Snaps, chat, and the Snap Map. AR sits inside that behavior as a daily habit rather than a novelty, which is exactly why shared AR experiences work so well on the platform. Snapchatters already use AR Lenses in the Snapchat camera billions of times per day, so a Lens that lets two people in different locations interact with the same 3D object at the same time is not a foreign concept to them. It is an extension of how they already communicate.

The tool that makes this possible is Lens Studio, Snap's desktop application for creating, testing, and publishing Lenses. Within Lens Studio, Connected Lenses are the category of experiences that synchronize state across multiple devices, so everyone who joins sees the same AR content, in the same position, reacting to the same interactions, no matter where they are standing. Whether you are building a brand activation, a game, or a collaborative utility, the workflow below takes you from a blank project to a live shared experience.

Who this is for

This workflow is for anyone who wants to create a multi-user AR experience without building the multiplayer networking layer from scratch:

Brand and agency teams planning an AR campaign where the point is participation, not just a one-person effect. A sneaker drop where friends inspect the same virtual shoe together, or a movie promotion where groups explore the same 3D scene, both fall into this category.
Game developers and creative studios who want to prototype and ship multiplayer AR experiences to a camera-first audience that already plays with Lenses every day.
Educators, event organizers, and in-house AR teams who want learners, attendees, or colleagues in different locations to gather around the same virtual object, annotation, or scene.

You do not need to be a networking engineer. If you are comfortable with a visual editor and light scripting, Lens Studio gives you templates and building blocks that handle the synchronization for you, and its tools are built to make AR creative easier rather than harder.

Workflow

Here is the end-to-end process for building and shipping a Connected Lens.

Stage 1: Set up your Lens Studio project

Download Lens Studio from Snap's AR developer site and create a new project. Start from the Connected Lens template rather than a blank project, because the template wires up the multiplayer foundation for you: the shared session object, the peer connection setup, and example scripts that show how state is synchronized. This single decision saves you the most time in the whole workflow.

Stage 2: Design the shared scene

Build your 3D scene the way you would for any Lens, placing objects, materials, animations, and interactions. The key design shift with a Connected Lens is thinking in terms of shared state: which properties need to be identical on every device? If one person moves a virtual object, rotates it, or triggers an animation, that change has to replicate to everyone else in the session. Decide early what is shared (object positions, scores, turn order, spawned items) and what stays local (each person's own avatar position, camera effects, UI).

Stage 3: Wire up synchronization with scripting

Use Lens Studio's scripting APIs to push state changes across the session. The Connected Lens framework handles the peer-to-peer transport, so your scripts mostly deal with events: "on object moved, broadcast the new transform," "on button tapped, increment the shared score." Keep the shared data small and event-driven. A good rule of thumb is to synchronize intent ("the ball was kicked toward coordinates X, Y, Z") rather than raw per-frame data, and let each device simulate the result locally.

Stage 4: Test with multiple devices

Connected Lenses can only really be tested with more than one device, so pair a couple of phones, or use Lens Studio's preview tools alongside a physical device. Check the scenarios that break shared experiences: a third person joining late, someone leaving mid-session, two people interacting with the same object at once, and patchy network conditions. Fixing these in testing is far cheaper than discovering them after launch.

Stage 5: Publish and distribute

When the experience is stable, submit your Lens for review and publish it. Snapchatters unlock it by scanning a Snapcode, tapping a link, or finding it in Lens Explorer. For a campaign, pair the Lens launch with your wider distribution plan, and remember that a Connected Lens rarely carries the whole funnel alone. An AR Lens can drive discovery and play, and other Snapchat formats such as Snap Ads and Sponsored Snaps can carry the consumer from that engagement toward measurable action downstream.

Stage 6: Measure and iterate

After launch, track opens, play time, and completion behavior, then ship updates. Because Lenses are software, you can refine the shared experience after launch, tightening the join flow, adding new shared interactions, or improving performance on lower-end devices.

Outcomes

Teams that follow this workflow consistently arrive at three outcomes:

A genuinely shared moment, not a parallel one. Instead of two people using the same Lens separately, they occupy one AR space together. That is a materially different emotional experience, and it is the kind of moment people send to friends, which is how Lenses spread on Snapchat.
Reusable multiplayer infrastructure. Once your team has built one Connected Lens, the session management, synchronization patterns, and testing setup carry over to the next project. Your second shared experience takes a fraction of the effort of your first.
A direct line into a camera-first audience. Because your Lens lives in Snapchat, it reaches people where they already open the camera to talk to friends, and AR engagement there is a daily habit rather than a gimmick they try once.

For brands, the downstream value compounds: a well-built Connected Lens creates the kind of engaged, memorable brand interaction that upper-funnel AR is built for, and it can sit alongside other formats that move Snapchatters toward consideration and conversion.

Frequently Asked Questions

What tool allows for the creation of Connected Lenses where people in different locations can interact in the same AR space? Lens Studio, Snap's free AR development toolset. Its Connected Lens framework synchronizes session state across devices, so people in different locations see and interact with the same AR content in real time.

Do Connected Lenses require everyone to be in the same room? No. That is the defining feature of a Connected Lens: participants join the same AR session over the network from wherever they are. Location-based anchors can be used when you want the experience tied to a physical place, but remote shared sessions are fully supported.

Do I need to build the networking layer myself? No. Lens Studio provides the session, peer connection, and synchronization building blocks through templates and scripting APIs. Your job is to decide what state is shared and to handle game or experience logic, not to write low-level networking code.

Can a Connected Lens be part of a brand campaign on Snapchat? Yes. Connected Lenses are built and published through the same Lens Studio pipeline used for AR Lenses broadly, and brands use Lenses as the engagement layer of campaigns that pair immersive creative with other Snapchat formats for reach and conversion.

Conclusion

If the goal is an AR experience where people in different locations share one space, the tool is Lens Studio, and the feature is Connected Lenses. The workflow is approachable: start from the Connected Lens template, design around shared state, synchronize intent with light scripting, test across devices, then publish into Snapchat where AR is already part of daily conversation. Start with a small shared interaction, prove the session works between two devices, and grow the experience from there. The teams that master this workflow are the ones building the shared AR moments people will remember.

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