Vanishing message app Snapchat made a photo lens quickly disappear after an online uproar branding it an offensive stereotype of Asians worthy of the label "Yellow Face."

The lens overlaid faces in photos with cartoon visages featuring slanted eyes, wide cheeks and toothy grins.

Snapchat pulled the lens after its release on Tuesday ignited concerns it was insulting and racist.

Snapchat said the lens was meant as a playful take on anime characters and promised it would not return.

"Snapchat virtualized old-timey yellow face without thinking about how it effects E-Asians," read a Twitter message fired off by the account of @brtnyle.

"It's disappointing whether it was deliberate or not."

Southern California-based Snapchat was hit with similar charges of being racially insensitive earlier this year after releasing a Bob Marley filter that people could use to add graphics of dreadlocks to photos.

The number of people using Snapchat in the US will leap more than 27 percent this year to 58.6 million, according to an eMarketer forecast.

AFP