Google Cloud and Snap Inc. announced an expanded partnership to enhance Snapchat’s My AI chatbot with advanced generative AI capabilities. 

The collaboration leverages Google Cloud’s Gemini on Vertex AI to power multi-modal interactions within the Snapchat app.

Snapchat, which boasts over 850 million monthly active users, will integrate Gemini’s ability to process various types of information, including text, audio, image, video, and code. This upgrade enables My AI to offer more engaging features to Snapchat’s community.

The new functionality allows users to interact with My AI in novel ways. For example, Snapchatters can now ask the chatbot to translate a photo of a street sign while traveling or analyze a video of snack options to determine the healthiest choice.

“This partnership with Google Cloud reinforces everything that’s so important to serving our community,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in a news release. “Snap is all about empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.”

Snap reports a significant increase in user engagement following the implementation of Gemini on Vertex AI. Since deployment, the company has observed more than 2.5 times as much engagement within Snapping to My AI in the United States.

“Snap was an early leader in helping people communicate in a digital world, and now it is at the forefront of using generative AI to build agents that create new value for its community,” added Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.

The collaboration builds on a decade-long partnership between Snap and Google Cloud. Snap has previously adopted Google Cloud’s data, analytics, and AI/ML technologies to drive growth and enhance user experience.

Earlier this year, Speigel admitted that Snap had “fallen behind the curve on the machine learning side,” which was reflected in business performance.

The company recently rolled out a test version of its app with a simplified interface to streamline content discovery and user interaction.