The unexpected popularity of a dancing hot dog seems to have convinced Snap Inc. that augmented reality is the future of Snapchat.

Snap announced today the launch of Lens Studio, a free AR creation app for Windows and Mac that will flood Snapchat with new AR content.

Lens Studio allows users to create their own Snapchat Lenses, which are the machine learning-based AR features that Snap introduced more than two years ago. The app comes with a few example projects to help users get started, including that dancing hot dog.

Snap said creators can use the source code from its sample to design their own Lenses, but the company also encourages users to create their own assets. While Lens Studio users keep the rights to their assets and design files, Snap holds the rights to the final Lens once it has been submitted.

In an effort to jumpstart its catalog of new AR content, Snap will be holding competitions for Lens Studio users. Winners will receive a Lens Studio swag bag with an iPad Pro, and Snap says it may feature some of their creations on the Snapchat Lens carousel. Submissions for the first competition are due by Jan. 16, but Snap plans on holding new competitions in the future.

Anyone can download Lens Studio and start designing AR content for Snapchat, but one of the big targets for the new AR app is advertisers. Several brands have already sponsored Snapchat Lens ads in the past, but now any business can build its own AR ad campaign for Snapchat.

Snap has also partnered with several ad agencies that will be allowed to create Face Lenses, Snapchat’s popular selfie mode that layers interactive AR elements over a user’s face. Meanwhile, regular users are currently limited to World Lenses, which can only use a phone’s rear camera.

Snap jumped on the AR bandwagon relatively early, but Lens Studio is not the first AR publishing tool to hit the market this year. In fact, it is not even the first to launch this week, as Facebook Inc. released its AR Studio app on Tuesday, giving a AR creators a potential audience of its more than 2 billion users. Google LLC and Apple Inc. have also both released AR creation tools for their own platforms, with ARCore for Android and ARKit for iOS.

Snap has been struggling with user growth lately. If the company hopes that AR will still help it stand out among the competition, it may be disappointed.

Photo: Snap