Snap made good on the much-anticipated launch of Snap Games, enabling Snapchat users to play games with their contacts from within the messaging app.

Initiated at its Partner Summit, the company stated the feature can be opened “right from the Chat bar, allowing you and your friends to instantly play together, no install required”.

“You can see which friends you’re playing with, send them a chat, or even talk live with voice chat,” Snap said, adding the platform will have six titles to begin with.

These include Tiny Royale by publisher Zynga and Snake Squad by Game Closure.

Games may deliver Snap a much-needed financial boost through advertising and in-app purchases.

In February CEO Evan Spiegel said he is confident the company will soon turn a profit, after it narrowed its net loss and generated record revenue in the final quarter of 2018.

Other announcements
Snap also announced new original shows that are “personal, intimate, and made for the way you use your phone today.”

These include a daily show by BuzzFeed plus docuseries, comedies, and teen dramas.

By way of providing metrics for its previous shows, Snap said “the time Snapchatters spent watching Shows has nearly tripled” in Q4 2018 compared with the same period of 2017.

The show Endless Summer reached more than 28 million unique viewers during its first season, while more than 40 per cent of viewers which completed the first episode of The Dead Girls Detective Agency went on to watch the entire first season.

There was also an update to Lens Studio with more templates for AR creators including Landmarkers, which enables developers to build Lenses (or filters) “that can transform the world’s most iconic landmarks in real-time.”