The way Snap Camera works is simple: You download the Mac or Windows version and then it syncs with any camera connected to your computer. After that, you can use the feed from the Snap Camera to record yourself using Lenses on apps like Skype and Google hangouts -- all you have to do is make sure you've selected it as your main camera output. It also works if you're trying to shoot a video on your computer to upload to sites such as YouTube.

It's no secret that Snapchat, Snap Inc's flagship product, has been struggling since the company went public in 2017. According to CEO Evan Spiegel, Snapchat lost 3 million daily users during the second quarter of 2018, though Snap Inc. seems to have figured out a way to make money despite that, as it announced on Thursday in its Q3 2018 earnings report. That's probably a big reason why Snap isn't forcing Snap Camera users to have a Snapchat account, though it will offer a way to create one directly from it if they wish. "[We] want to put something out there that, first and foremost, is making it as simple as possible for a new community to access Snapchat Lenses," Eitan Pilipski, vice president of Camera Platform at Snap, told Engadget.

While you won't be required to have a Snapchat login, there will be experiences tied to that app. For instance, Snap is teaming up with Twitch to bake features from the new desktop Camera right into the streaming service. This means Twitch streamers can use thousands of Lenses, including those created by Snapchat and the Lens Studio community, in their live sessions. Snap's hope is that viewers will love the Lenses being used by their favorite Twitch streamer and they'll want to unlock it on the mobile front, which they'll be able to do by scanning a Snapcode that's going to appear on the bigger screen.